Going Beyond the Cup
by Eryessa
Summary: Cora is Dina's cousin, this is her adventure into life as a Fossil Fighter and the path she takes in the Caliosteo Cup competition. I'm really bad a summaries, sorry.
1. Prologue

She heard of wild vivosaurs being at the top of the mountain but Cora didn't buy into Todd's story. Todd was the hyper, quick thinking, scaredy cat and she didn't really care for him to begin with. It was a wonder how he got the idea to go look for said wild vivosaurs in the first place.

Cora looked at Todd and Dina, curious as to why this was going on. Dina wasn't the kind to go off willy-nilly like, not as Todd did at odd times.

"You're too young." Twelve year old Todd said before rushing out the door of the Girls Cabin. He poked his head back in. "Come on, Dina, I want to find myself a vivosaur before supper." Then he was gone again.

"I'm only two years younger than you guys." Cora finally said looking at her cousin.

"Just stay here. I want to make sure Todd doesn't get himself killed." Dina said before leave herself.

This camp thing was for those that didn't quite understand fossil fighting or all the different vivosaurs that were out there. Led by some of the higher ranking fossil fighters, Vivosaur Camp was a summer camp located in Colorado, away from any town or city. It was large for the fossil battle demos that were being taught to the kids. There were about ten cabins, a rec hall and a dining hall. Five boy cabins and five girl cabins where five occupants could sleep comfortably in them, each with a Leader in each cabin, this was how the camp was situated. Anyone could come to camp for an entire summer but for Cora, and her cousin Dina, this meant it was a good way to prepare for their lives as fossil fighters. But it wasn't all that fun especially with Todd Sanders hanging around.

Todd, the very thought of the bright eyed hyperactive jumping bean made Cora roll her eyes as she was putting on her gloves and boots. With Todd, they were always getting into trouble, trouble that Dina got them out of. With Friday being Free Day, campers could do what they wanted. And on this day, Todd decided to sneak out of camp, which is highly prohibited, and sneak off to Smilo Mountain. Cora opted to follow her older cousin, and the green clad dimwit. She was in for her own fun.

"They must be around here somewhere." Cora mumbled two hours later.

She was on top of a mountain but from the looks of things, she wasn't on the mountain top where her cousin and dimwit had gone off to. She had lost them on a trail to Smilo Peak, she hadn't realized it but Cora had taken a different path all together. She was lost too. Now she was starting to worry as she stopped to look around.

Cora stood in a clearing looking at a satellite image of where was located on the tablet that she owned. She had managed to built this from a broken tablet that she had found in a dumpster, fixed the screen and made it sync up to the FA database and could access all the good stuff that the FA had to offer. It was one thing that Todd always tried to take from her, without asking so she had to hide it from him. He wanted it so badly. Well now Cora was using it to see where she was at.

"Now look who's the dimwit. I got myself lost." Cora mumbled shoving her reddish auburn hair out of her face. Unlike her naturally pretty cousin, Cora was sort of, blah in her opinion.

Thud, thud, thud…something was moving towards her through the woods that surrounded the clearing. Cora looked up, her face tightened and she concentrated on where the thuds were coming from. Four footed, not two, which could be a good thing if it was a vivosaur.

_**Hello, who's there,**_ a voice said, it was almost like Cora could hear it in her head.

"Uh, it's just me I suppose." Cora squinted, thinking she saw a flash of red through the mix of greens and browns of the foliage.

A black, orange and yellow head came out of a bush near to where Cora was. Shocked, Cora tripped and fell backwards on the lush grass under her feet. Looking through her hair, the odd Stegosaurus like vivosaur took a few tentative steps out of the bush. It stopped, unsure as if what had happened was just a figment of their minds.

_**Are you okay? I didn't mean to scare you**_, the red vivosaur said, still sounding like it was in Cora's head.

"I'm, I'm fine." Cora said pushing at her hair as she stood up. "It's just, I can hear you in my head."  
_**Really, my last trainer didn't, or couldn't. All of us tried talking to him but lost the connection.**_

"You're a Yango, right?"

_**Yep,**_ if that was a smile, Cora hoped it was. _**I've been hiding from an Allo. I lost him near Smilo Peak.**_

"Smilo Peak, that's east of here. That's where my cousin's going with that dimwit of a friend of hers." Cora jerked around and started heading back towards the path that she had been on but stopped and turned around. "Come on, better not separate from each other, especially if there is an Allo around."

Hesitant at first, Yango nodded. _**Okay.**_

Together, Cora and the Yango looked like an odd pair traveling together. Even a pair of crows cawed their laughter at the pre-teen and the fire type Chinese cousin to the Stegosaurus vivosaur. The human and the vivosaur walked down the mountain path together, Cora at the lead and Yango trying her hardest to keep up, but for a lumbering giant, she was really slow.

_**If I was advanced enough, it would be easier to keep up.**_ Yango said after a while of silence between the two of them.

Cora stopped at a distance ahead of Yango, her head lowered as she sighed. This was not working as she had hoped it would, she had forgotten how slow Yangos were, like most heavyset vivosaurs that had a lot of armor. Cora took a few soothing breaths and turned back to Yango. She didn't say anything as she walked back to the smaller Stego like vivosaur.

She smiled. "My cousin's smart, unlike Todd. I think they'll be okay. Let's slow down, you look tired."

_**Thanks, I really am.**_

There was a bolder next to the mountain path, Cora sat down on it and sighed. "Yango, do you think I can be a fossil fighter some day?"

_**Why, do you think you won't be?**_

Yango leaned against a tree, more like a small clump of trees. She was like a cow, or a horse, she couldn't lay down without having trouble getting up. The trees bent under her weight as she looked across the path at Cora. Cora was in thought, kicking at a pebble with her boots, the ones that she had done so much house chores and small jobs to get from the FossilDig Company.

"Honestly, I don't know. Something makes me question if I will ever be a great fighter some day."

_**What makes you feel this way?**_

"Todd, he makes me feel like I am a little kid just because he's two years older than me. I wasn't supposed to follow them but I did. Todd thinks I'm stupid when he goes in search of wild vivosaurs." Angrily kicking the pebble one last time, she watched it bump and bounce it's way down the path. "He's always getting into trouble. You're not supposed to leave the Camp, at all, unless you have a camp councilor with you. But he did because he wants to find a wild vivosaur."

_**How did he come to this conclusion?**_

"Well for one, someone told him about these wild vivosaurs living at the top of Smilo Peak, and I think he took my cousin to her doom. One time he broke a window at home and blamed it on me, when I wasn't even there at the time. Luckily I had been playing around with spy cameras and showed video evidence to my aunt and uncle, he had to pay for the damages himself."

_**He doesn't sound like a nice guy. Why does your cousin put up with him?**_

"She's sorry for him, I think. He's not really popular at school so I guess she wants him to have at least one friend."

A moment or two passed when Cora finally stood from the bolder. When turning her head she felt a few pops and the tension in her neck subsided. Good, she didn't need a headache for later.

"Let's get off this mountain. If I take you back to camp then they'll know what to do." Cora finally said looking at Yango.

_**What about your cousin?**_

"She'll make sure Dimwit will be safe. I know my cousin, Dina will make sure everything turns out right."  
Yango attempted to speak but a shadow fell upon the path. Looking up, just about the tree tops, a Pteranodon, or Ptera flew. Yango strained her head up, tilting it sideways to see from one eye. With Yango having eyes on the side of her head, she couldn't see with both eyes, she had to tilt her head from one side to the other just to see what was going on.

_**There is someone up there.**_ Yango said, looking at Cora slightly.

"Someone's riding the Ptera?" Cora asked squinting up.

Having to shield her brown eyes from the glare of the midday sun, Cora finally could make out that there was someone up there. The person looked male in appearance but that's all she could see.

Yango and Cora watched as the Ptera landed gracefully with a whoosh, whoosh, whooshing sound of its wings in front of them. Cora stood in front of Yango, who was cowering behind her back in fear. There was a man on the Ptera wearing a weird spiked brown cowboy hat, like the horns of a Tricera it looked like. The man had a long brown coat, black pants, weird brown boots with brown leather fringes and he had a pickax attached to his back with a leather strap. He was an adult, something that was a little unnerving to Cora as she watched the man slide off of the Ptera's back with ease.

"Howdy there, Pards, I see yah found my last rogue vivosaur." The man said, tilting his hat in a welcoming manner.

"You look familiar." Cora stated, feeling less scared at the thought. She had seen him before on television, he was someone everyone respected. "Are you Joe Wildwest?"

"Sure am, pard. I reckon yah have seen me on television, right."

"Um, sor of, my cousin Dina and her friend Todd watch you a lot. I'm from Vivosaur Camp so we watch a lot of matches from the best fighters around. We see a lot of your matches."  
"Dina and Todd, you say? Why I had them help me wrangle an Allo over yonder on Smilo Peak. Dina's your cousin, right?"  
"Yeah, is she okay, is she hurt?" Cora stepped forward, in anticipation and fear that something bad had happened to her cousin.

"Oh, she's un hurt, and she's a plum good fighter. She fought the Allo with my Aerosteon, my Aeros, a high attack vivosaur. Speaking of vivosaur, this one here seems to like yah, small fry." Joe said, nodding to Yango.

"Well, I'm helping Yango out, trying to get her some help. I was going to take her back to camp and see if they could help her out in some way. She was abandoned yesterday by her real trainer, sounds like he didn't like her because she was weak or something."

"Why not keep her, yerself? I mean, she does seem to like you." Joe was looking at the Yango, who was now standing at Cora's side.

_**She can keep me? **_Yango asked, looking at Cora and then back at Joe.

"Of course she can keep ya, Yango Girl. It's obvious she cares enough to help you. Not a lot of people are willing to do that." Joe smiled, his blue eyes gleaming in an emotion Cora couldn't understand.

"Wait," Cora held up her hands, Joe looked at her in confusion. "Wait, you can understand Yango, too?"

"Course I can, any good fighter worth their lick can understand their vivosaurs on a deeper level. Yet, some can't do that, pard. Yah must be a special fighter then if you can understand a vivosaur."  
"I'm not a fighter."

"Not yet, but someday you oughta be a plum good one. I reckon with training you'll be even better at it than me. That's how high you have to go, be better than me to be the best."  
"I want to be a great fighter but I also want to work for the Fighters Association Research Center near my home in Miami. Can't I be both?"  
"Well grease my bacon, that sure sounds like a right good idea, small fry. So as an officiate for the Fighters Association, I hereby give yah yer first vivosaur, this Yango here."  
"My first vivosaur, really," Cora looked at Yango. "Can I call you Yang? It sounds better than just Yango."  
_**I like that, Yang does sound better.**_ The fire type vivosaur said, giving her best smile to the dark haired girl.

"Well, I best be off myself, pards. Can yah get down the mountain on your oown?" Joe asked as he stepped back up to the Ptera.

"Um, yeah we can do that. Yang, can you get back into your medal so I can try to beat Dina and Dimwit back to camp?" Cora asked.

In a flash of light, Yang turned into a small metal disc that jumped into Cora's hand. Stuffing the medal in her jeans pocket, Cora turned to look at Joe.

"Thank you, Joe, this read means a lot to me."  
"Get back to camp, small fry. I wouldn't want yah getting' in a whole lotta trouble with the camp councilors." Joe said rubbing the underside of his Ptera's beak.

Cora ran all the way back down the mountain, which it occurred to her was name Machai Mountain. She hardly stopped to rest until she practically ran through the Tricera cabin door. Breathing heavily, it was a wonder no one was in the cabin at all. This was what she had hoped, that she beat Dina and Todd to the girl's cabin.

As she was pulling off her gloves, her breathing had sort of returned to normal. The cabin door opened and in walked Dina, with Todd following behind. Todd was talking excitedly about something, it was too jumbled together for her to understand. Cora had just put her tablet down on the table, which Dina caught sight of.

"Have you been researching the FA again?"  
"No," Cora shook her head.

"Well pay attention kid we have something to tell you. Of course you wouldn't believe me when I say…" Todd started but Cora cut him off.

"That you got attacked by an Allo, Joe Wildwest rescued you and Dina chose Aerosteon to fight the Allo with. I know, Joe told me." She said taking the dino medal out of her pocket to put it on the tablet.

It took a moment for Cora's words to sink in, but Dina understood.

"You followed us?" She asked, leaning on the table.

"Yeah, but like Dimwit, I got lost. I lost your trail to Smilo Peak, I ended up on Machai Mountain where I encountered a vivosaur too."

"So Joe had to rescue a baby, huh?" Todd smirked and crossed his arms.

"No, Yango was abandoned by her owner yesterday. So I was going to bring her back here and to get help but we met up with Joe Wildwest. Since Yango trusted me, Joe said I could have her. Trust is key to a fossil fighter and the bond with vivosaurs. Now Dina and I have out own vivosaurs, how many do you have, Todd?" Cora asked, smirking right back at him.

"This is so unfair. How can a baby like her get a vivosaur before me?"

"Stop calling me a baby, you coward! It's because of you that I hate you so much!" Cora finally yelled, so loud that Dina and Todd jumped in shock. The once quiet girl erupted in front of them.

"What is she talking about, Todd?" Dina finally asked, looking at her friend.

Cora stomped off to the door. "It's nothing, Dina. I have to go find out cabin leader and tell her what happened and why I have Yang. Don't worry, I won't get you in trouble." Flinging open the screen door, Cora stomped out, leaving the two friends in the cabin alone.


	2. Chapter 1

Had it really been two years?

In a helicopter heading east towards the CaliosteoFossilPark, Cora sat in silence, looking out the window. She had decided to head out before Dina and Todd, hoping to avoid Todd at all costs. In her lap lay Yang's dino medal, Cora's thumb was caressing the image of Yang on its front as her mind drifted from thought to thought with no direction at all.

**_Thank you for finding my body fossil, Cora. With all the training we've been doing in the last few years I'm stronger than I was before I met you._** Yang's voice interrupted Cora's thoughts.

"Good, all that stuff two years ago was stupid. Your old trainer just didn't care enough to take the time to train you up. It takes time to get stronger and like Joe said, you have to have the bond with your trainer in order to work in an effective team."

There was a pause from Yang, as she thought of where to drive the conversation this time.

**_Why haven't you seen Dina, Todd I understand but why not Dina?_**

Cora closed her eyes and glanced down at the dino medal on her thigh. "With money being low in my home, my parents couldn't afford to send me back to camp. But I still talk to Dina, we do it through the computers. She'll be at The Cup for sure, along with Dimwit. At least Andy managed to get an internship with Dr. Diggins. He's bee wanting to do that for I don't know how long."

The Pilot alerted the lone passenger of them arriving at the fossil park. He highly suggested that Cora buckle up.

Placing Yang's dino medal back into her medal case, Cora clicked the belt strap over her waist and looked back out of the window. She could see the lush green island known as Ribular. She knew this because unlike Dimwit, she read the brochure all Cup participating fighters were given before they took the helicopter ride. She had seen Todd toss the brochure away and had to run off to go to the bathroom, telling Dina to wait for him. That's why Cora was getting to the Island before her cousin and the green clad dimwit.

The anticipation was building for her. Cora had just landed on RibularIsland of the CaliosteoFossilPark for her first main competition. As Cora stepped out of the helicopter, the breeze from the helicopter rotors kicked up her hair as it took off. A staff member from the park was there to greet her.

"Welcome to Ribular Town. This is the starting point of the Calisteo Cup, with the others being Cranial Isle and IliumIsland. We're asking all fighter to register in the fossil station, just up there." The woman said point to the central building just beyond four identical shaped fountains at the center of town.

Once she had registered, Cora didn't have long to wait until a woman came towards her. The woman had light brown hair, a green and yellow colored uniform and she had a sun visor hat on. She was a pretty woman, fit for this kind of work, the kind of body Cora hoped that she would get when she got older.

"Hi, I'm Stella and I'm the staff leader here on RibularIsland. I'm going to walk you through your orientation and the first place we're going is the most important place in a fossil station." The woman said, turning around to walk to the right side of the registration desk but stopped. "I'm sorry, what's your name?" She asked as Cora walked up.

"I'm Cora Chambers."

"Cora," Stella said, saying her name to memorize it for further reference. "Well, come this way please."

The cleaning room was large with a lot of impressive technology that Cora wanted to inspect more. She'd have to do that later. Stella showed her to the cleaning table in the room, and then went over to a case to pick up a large fossil rock before putting it on the table. The fossil rock that Cora saw was oddly shaped, it wasn't whole, in that she could see part of the fossil showing through the rock. This would be a little harder for her to do, than just a fully enclosed fossil. Even though she had prepared for the cleaning part of this task back home in Florida, she listened to Stella intently as she went through the cleaning process. When Cora went to the X-Ray, the fossil inside flared through the rock and showed her what looked like a meat eating vivosaur. It was a Therapod, it sort of looked like a T-Rex fossil but she knew it wasn't.

Cora started hitting the edges of the fossil, trying to work her way around it, worrying that she wouldn't get it cleaned in the ninety seconds that was allowed to clean a fossil rock. She hit a certain spot and watched a crack form. It stopped at the bottom right corner of the fossil so she hit that spot and then all the rock around the skull shattered off, leaving a perfectly intact fossil skull unharmed.

"Those are called buster points. Just follow the cracks and hit the ends and you'll clear the fossil faster than just chipping away slowly." Stella said taking the fossil over to a larger machine with a projection screen on the front where the revived vivosaurs could be viewed in holographic kind of way. In a flash of yellow light, Cora saw that her assumption was correct, it was a meat eating vivosaur, a large carnivore. The description screen said that the vivosaur was called a Raja, an earth type vivosaur and she remembered something that she had read about the fossilary the FA released about the vivosaurs on CaliosteoIsland, it was from India.

"You did really well, Cora. I'm impressed. Here is your Raja dino medal." Stella said handing a small medal disc, like Yang's dino medal only it had a Raja image on the front. "Now I need to show you to the Fossil Stadium for the next part of the orientation."

**_The Fossil Stadium is where I want to be at. I want people to see me on the field in a good battle._** Yang said once they exited the cleaning room.

Cora followed Stella to the common room, the room right before entering the stadium itself. Next to the stadium door a man introduced himself as Devon Straight. For the next twenty minutes he described the Jurassic and Cambrian battle positions on the attack fields. Devon also explained rotations and how they cost fight points, or FP. There was a lot to take in and getting back to the common room Cora's head was swimming with thoughts of different battle strategies that she would have to think about. The facts of battle still danced in her head as Stella stopped her in the room to hand her a small oval shaped device that Cora read about.

"I just got word that there are other registered fighters waiting for their orientation. So I wanted to give you this paleopager." Stella said as Cora looked at the object in her hand. It was silvery blue and egg shaped with the FA emblem of a T-Rex and a Tricera skull facing away from each other. "It is synced with the fossil message system. Your opponents are randomly chosen from the computer for each round you are in."

"Okay, that I can understand. I don't want to hold you up in your job, Stella."

"Right, I need to get the last fighters going on their orientation."

Cora and Stella heading out to the fighter station main hall and of course the people at the registration desk were the ones that Cora knew all too well.

"Hello, I'm Stella, the staff leader of RibularIsland." Stella said, walking towards the blue clad girl and the green clad boy.

"Oh man the Baby got here before us." Todd said looking at Cora, eyes narrowed and glaring.

Cora walked by him, not even looking at the older boy. "Go kiss a fish, Dimwit." She responded before heading to the station doors.

Stella looked at Cora leaving before turning back to Dina and Todd. "Is there a problem I need to know about?"

"No, no problem." Dina said, nudging Todd to keep him quiet. "Cora's my cousin, she and Todd don't like each other much."  
"Well, let's get passed this and get going on your orientation." She said, changing the subject. "We're going to start in the most important place here."

"The most important place, I wonder where that is." Todd excitedly looked at Dina while clinching his hands into fists before following Stella.

Out in the center of RibularTown, Cora smiled at the new dino medal in her hand. "Raja, you and Yang will make a great team." Cora said heading over to one of the four identical shaped fountains in the town square.

**_Fire beats earth._** The deep voice of the Raja said, strong but silent in appearance.

**_True, but I'm used as a supporter. It's not like I'm going to attack you._** Yang said, rolling her eyes knowing that no on could see her. **_Aren't you an attacker vivosaur?_**

Raja didn't answer. Instead, he asked Cora, **_Why are you bonded with me?_**

"Do you mean why was I partner with you or why can I hear you?" Cora asked sitting cross legged on the wall of a fountain near the helipad.

**_Why do I feel like I can trust you?_** Raja asked, confirming his question with a sigh of contentment.

"I care for all my vivosaurs. Of course you and Yang are my only ones for right now, but any and all are going to be treated equally."

**_That is all I ask._** Then Raja went silent for the remainder of the wait for the opening ceremony.

**_Apparently he's not much of a talker. _**Yango pointed out.

Cora smiled as she put her medal in the medal case on her hip. Movement caught her attention though, by a tall boy, a really tall boy for his age, came walking by. He had long black curly hair pulled back in a pony tail and he was fiddling with his paleopager. He had muscle tone to his arms, his upper body covered by a black t-shirt and he had on some jeans with a pair of nice looking boots. That's when Cora caught herself staring and turned back to her own personal space.

**_He seems to be having a problem with his pager. _**Yang said.

"How can you know this?" Cora asked, feeling the blush fading from her face.

**_I can read your mind, remember? Are you going to talk to him? You're really good at technology stuff, maybe you can offer to help him._**

Before she could even think about approaching the strange boy, he was the one that caught her off guard. The boy with the long hair walked straight up to her and when he did Cora stood up from the wall. She didn't reach his should and the sight of his green emerald eyes Cora off guard. His thin lips smiled slightly at her as his hand came up. Glancing at his hand Cora saw a blue colored paleopager with the FA emblem in his hand.

"Do you have any idea how to operate this bloody thing?" The boy asked. "Oh I'm so sorry, love. I'm Alexander Knight, with a K. Call me Alex."

"Cora Chambers, um yeah, I can help you with the paleopager. Can I see it, please?" She asked. "To me it's not hard, I love the FA tech stuff. Here, this is how you turn it on." She demonstrated by pressing a small black button on the side of the pager.

Alex go the basic tutorial of how to operate this cell phone/computer contraption. He learned how to turn it on, how to use it in battle to see what kind of vivosaurs the other fighter is using, and who goes first in a battle and then the fossil message system, or FMS. What he was more interest in was Cora.

The girl was utterly interesting. She was a tiny thing that knew so much about almost everything to do with technology. This intrigued Alex as he tried to listen to Cora explain the different program the pager had on it. Yet it was all just the same, he hated technology sometimes. The old ways were dying out for the new ones, as he Mum so lightly put it.

"I want to turn the pager into sunglasses. Maybe I can do it tonight after Round One, if I win it." Cora said while handing Alex his pager back to him.

"You can do that?" Alex sat next to her on the fountain wall, letting his long legs stretch out before him.

"I've always been tech savvy. I created a tablet that links into the FA main frame, where I can see all the stats for all fossil fighters. Hunter from VivosaurIsland is someone I'd like to battle some day. Who would you like to battle, Alex?" She asked, going cross legged again.

"Joe Wildwest, but from my country a bloke named McCallum. He's a bloody good fighter, beat out the Rupert kid several times and beat him last year in the European finals."

**_That's right, we watched that battle. I loved Rupert's mental breakdown. It serves him right for being a big idiot and a bad trainer._** Yang piped up.

Alex laughed, which came out as a deep rumble from in his chest. "That Git doesn't know good sportsmanship, that's for sure."

"You can hear Yang." Cora looked at the English boy in shock.

"It helps I have that link with vivosaurs. Met me first when I was twelve visiting Ireland. Ceros is call the Irish Elk, but…"

"It's been found as far as Northern Africa. Sorry, I know some things about vivosaurs in the dinosaur forms. Don't Ceros have like twelve foot long antlers, from tip to tip?"

"Aye, they do. You seem young to know so much about vivosaurs."

"Dinosaurs have always interested me as a little kid. I've always been different, it's what makes people insult me for my intelligence and the only person that understands is my older brother Andy. Andy got an internship with Dr. Diggins over on VivosaurIsland. Also my cousin Dina is entered in the Cup, but it would be better if Dimwit wasn't in it."

"Who's Dimwit."

Cora pointed to the fighter station steps. "That would be him. The blonde is Dina, the dud in green is Todd Sanders, AKA Dimwit. Not too bright but always mean to me."

"Why is he mean to you?"  
"I don't want to talk about it, okay. I never have."

"That's fine, you don't know me anyway. For curiosity sake, love, how old are you?"  
Cora shrugged. "I'm twelve, how old are you, Alex?"

"I'm fifteen, love." Alex said, glancing at Todd and Dina, who were making their way closer towards them.

"You're a year older than Dina."

**_I've been with Cora for two years,_** Yang put in. **_Then she was plaed with Raja._**

"I was paire with Daspleta, Plato for the Greek Philosopher."

"I think Raja is the quiet guru, Yang used to be quiet but she's opened up slight in the two years."

Todd's voice rang out for everyone to here. "Look, something's flying this way."

Cora and Alex stood up to see a dual propeller flying screen coming towards them. It was white with lights running vertically on each side of the large screen, with three loud speakers along the bottom. The face on the screen was of a man that Cora had met two years prior. All hushed, knowing that he was the reason why a lot of them had gone into fossil fighting in the first place.

"Welcome to the Caliosteo Fossil Park," he said, smiling through the screen, "the place where dreams are made. I'm the owner of this here park, the name's Joe Wildwest. You fighters'll love it here. We got three islands to explore. Now get ready for a surprise! 'Cause I want y'all to know that the Cup champion'll get my Park! You'll own 'er free and clear. So let's get to battlin' folks…The Caliosteo Cup is now open!"

Just as Joe yelled that, fireworks began bursting in the sky. Cora and Alex jumped when in the middle of the fireworks their paleopagers went off. An FMS message told them to head towards the TreasureLake path to get their fossil sonar devices.

"Come on, stick with me and you'll learn how to use any type of tech that they throw at us." Cora said looking up at Alex with a smile on her face.


	3. Chapter 2: Round One

**I want to thank you for your reviews. I'm sort of rewriting the game story mode so that it can fit in with the story. So I hope you like the next installment of Going Beyond the Cup.**

* * *

There was an attendant that greeted Alex and Cora at the path towards TreasureLake. Her name was Sally, from the name tag that Cora saw on her jacket. Sally handed the two kids their fossil sonars but couldn't tell them how to use the devices because others were waiting for their fossil sonars. This didn't bother Cora any, plenty of practice at the Vivosaur Camp in Colorado, a world away from her life in Miami.

Alex stopped on a large open field, at least it looked like a field, there was a fence at the end. What he didn't see was that the field was the cliff over looking a good size lake where a large skull of some enormous creature rested in the middle of the lake. Alex looked down at his side as Cora came to stand next to him. In her hand was her red colored fossil sonar, compared to his blue one, it seemed like they were given sonar devices that represented their genders.

"Is that a skull in the middle of the lake?" Alex asked, looking back at the sight in front of him.

**_It appears that way._** Plato's own voice startled Cora a bit.

"That must be Bone Hollow. I read about it in the Caliosteo Brochure while waiting for my helicopter from Miami." Cora said looking at her sonar. "To work the sonar, just push this button here on the side." She demonstrated with her own sonar, letting Alex lean down over her shoulder. "The arrow shows where we're standing, the tip points to where we're looking. So, press the buton and let's see what we can find."

Off in the distance Cora could see people digging up fossil rocks, people were battling with each other and then there were those people trying to operate their fossil sonar systems. There was a path that led down the cliff to the edge of the lake to the left of the large fossil, and as they walked there was a ping just ahead of Alex.

"You get it, I'll get the one next to it though." Cora said, running up to where the sonar had pinged on something.

This went on for a while. They dug up fossil rocks from next to the water and even braved to get in the lake itself. It wasn't until Alex picked up a rock that was too light to be a fossil.

"It's a jewel rock. Andy says that they are more valuable over on VivosaurIsland, people are always fighting over them. I guess here, they are in less of demand."

Alex put it in his shrinking fossil rock case. "How do you know if you've got a new fossil rock, or one that you've already cleaned, or is a jewel rock?"

"Well, your sonar tells you. It records the cleaned fossils so it will tell you if you have already cleaned this fossil rock or not. Since we're new, it's going to be almost all new fossil rocks for us."

"How do you know so much about this stuff, love? I look at it and I get all turned around backwards trying to understand how to even work what they are giving us." Alex said stopping in the water that reach his ankles.

Most of the water around the weird large skull thing was ankle deep water. For Cora, this didn't bother her, especially with her new set of FossilDig boots she saved up for two summers to get. Yet as Alex stood in the water, Cora stood on land, sort of thinking of an answer for him.

"Would you believe me if I said at camp? The FA have summer camps for kids who want to learn to be good fossil fighters. Don't they have stuff like that from where you're from?"

Alex sighed and glanced at the small fish swimming around his ankles. "I live in Ireland with my mum. She's Irish, but I was raised in England. Ireland has banned fossil fighting so I can only watch stuff like that on the telly."

Luckily, neither Cora nor Alex had been challenged to a fossil battle over a fossil rock. Cora had seen this nearby when she was digging up a fossil rock out of the lake. A boy and girl started fighting their vivosaurs, the boy with the Raja beat out the girl with the weird air type duck bill dinosaur.

"Pacro, that's it's name. Keeping up with over a hundred different vivosaurs is going to be tough, you know." Cora said looking at Alex as he offered her his hand to help her out of the water. "Thanks. Now I really want to go see what kinds fossils we have in our fossil rock cases."

While they were leaving the TreasureLake area, it gave Cora time to think about what Alex said, about Ireland banning fossil battling and all of that. "Well, you're a cool guy, Alex, nothing is going to change my mind about that. But out of curiosity, if you live in Ireland fossil fighting is banned there, then where will you go after the Cup is over?"

"It's illegal to fight vivosaurs there, it's not illegal to own them. There aren't a lot of fighters from Dublin, or in the rest of the Republic of Ireland, maybe about ten from Dublin and I don't know how many else there are in the country alone. We're pushing for allowing a fossil stadium in Dublin for the battles but it appears our pleas have gone unnoticed."

**_He could come to Miami with us._** Yang put in.

**_Why?_** To hear Raja's voice made Cora jerk slightly when they neared the fighters station. **_Maybe Alex prefers to make an example for Ireland._**

**_ You're not helping,_** Yang mumbled.

Plato stepped into the vivosaur conversation. **_We have no say over what our trainers should do or not do. They choose for themselves, they've done it long before becoming fossil fighters. Let us follow their commands and be what we are supposed to be, their team of vivosaurs._**

**_ "You are correct in that fact, friend._** Raja said before going silent again.

"That was awkward." Cora glanced up at Alex. "I'm not used to hearing vivosaurs, even if I have been listening to Yang for two years."

"Tell me about it. But they pose some interesting point I do need to consider when I leave for home. Now come on, ladies first or we won't be prepared for the Round One battles we'll have." Alex smiled, showing off a pair of dimples Cora had totally missed before.

Stella was in the cleaning room standing next to the cleaning machine, with something that was strange, even to Cora. There was a metallic white oval egg shaped robot with long arms and a set of three metal fingers at the end of said arms. It was floating, it was a hovering robot with a mechanical drill on top of it's head. Alex stayed rooted behind Cora as the both of them approached with slight apprehension.

"Oh good, there's two of you here. This will go by a lot faster for me." Stella said, smiling at the two younger fighters. "This is KL-33N, he will aid you in cleaning your fossils once he's at a certain cleaning level. And this over here is the Vivosaurs Medal Machine, the VMM. It will hold your dino medals and you can make up to three different teams for your medal case you carry with you. You can change out any vivosaurs that you wish, all will be stored here in the VMM. I know it's a lot to take in but do you two understand what I just said?"

"Yes ma'am." Cora responded.

"No worries here." Alex added with a nod of his head.

"Good, now I have an issue to respond to. I'l be back if you have anymore questions to ask me." Then Stella walked out of the cleaning room.

Alex glanced at Cora, "As I said, ladies first."

"Are you afraid of an AI robot, Alex?" Cora asked, smirking as she turned her fossil case over to KL-33N.

He didn't meet Cora in the eye. "No, not really."

"Don't worry, just follow me and learn."

Cleaning her six fossil rocks weren't all that hard, until she encountered her theropod fossil skull in the group. Cora managed to find it's buster points though and cleaned the rest of the rock off the skull without damaging the skull itself. So far she cleaned the skull of a Tricera, her favorite kind of dinosaur growing up, the skull of what she saw to be an Aeros, just like the one Joe gave to her cousin Dina. Then Cora cleaned a swiss cheese looking fossil rock that contained Tricera's body fossil and then found Aeros' body fossil a bit difficult to celan. With patience, Cora managed to clean it to ninety-nine percent.

**_It's okay, you'll get another chance later. _**Aeros said from his dino medal before KL-33N put it in the VMM machine.

**_My name is Cera, at least that's what I was called when I was alive. I want on the Main Team, I'm good as a supporter and as an attacker. I'm midrange, just so you know."_** The female Tricera said, asserting herself to her new trainer.

"Oh bloody great, that one is going to give you a headache, love," Alex stated as Cora began cleaning her two jewel rocks.

"Don't tell me that while I'm trying to clean with a KL-33N talking in my other ear." Cora spoke through gritted teeth.

So now Cora had Raja, Yang, Cera, and Aeros on her team. Alex found his own Raja, who became Raj for short, his own Tricera, this one a boy who didn't want to change his name and his own Aeros.

**_I'm from Argentina, hombre._** The Aeros was a male with a Latino accent, go figure. **_What is the capital of Argentina?_**

"Buenos Aires, that's that capital of Argentina." Cora responded, not having to think much about it.

**_The Aires will be my new name._** The Aerosteon stated with almost an assertive manner.

**_Careful there, bub, I'm Alex's starter and I can beat you in an elemental battle._** Plated stated from the English boy's medal case.

**_Try me, hombre._** Aires replied snidely.

"Will the lot of yah be quiet? This is getting on my nerves." Alex said putting his new dino medals into his medal case. "You're my vivosaurs now, the least you could do is be respectful of each other. At some point you will be battling on a team together. Be a team player."

"Looks like you'll have your hands full with this group, me amigo." Cora smirked at the older boy.

The door to the cleaning room opened and in walked Dina. Cora glanced at Alex as he was cleaning his jewel rocks before walking up to her cousin. Of course the first thin out of Dina's mouth was what Cora had expected her to say.

"Who is he?" Dina asked, nodding towards that tall boy.

"His name is Alex Knight, with a K. He's English and lives in Dublin, Ireland. He's new to the fossil fighting sport so I'm helping him with using the tech we have. Don't make this into something it isn't, Dina."

"Look, I know Todd and you don't get along but I don't want to choose sides here, Cora."

"Dina, I'm twelve years old and I have more common sense than Dimwit does. You've already chosen who's better to be around with it seems to me. Let me have one friend who doesn't treat me like a baby because I'm three years younger than him."

Dina held up her hands in surrender. "Fine, whatever. Just be careful, okay."

"Hello there. You must be Cora's cousin, Dina. It's a pleasure to meet you." Alex said walking up behind Cora slightly. "The name's Alex, love."

Dina was startled to say the least. She accepted Alex's handshake and then eyed Cora and him together. They looked to be odd to be seen next to each other. But they oddly looked good at the same time. Maybe it's the hair, she concluded smiling at them.

"I came to clean my fossil rocks that I found in TreasureLake. Did you guys just finish?"

"Yep. I fond an Aeros and so did Alex. I haven't found the body fossil for my Raja, my starter yet, so I guess I'll have to go back to TreasureLake and look around again. Then I found the head and body fossil rocks of a Tricera, but she calls herself Cera."

"I was partnered with a Tricera during orientation. Who were you partnered with?" Dina asked Alex.

"Daspleto, but I call him Plato, after the Greek Philosopher. He's only found at the donation center so I have to ear donation points for his fossil parts."

"Oh well, Daspletos are known for high defense so you'll be capable of handling higher ranking battles when the time comes." Why was she acting like this?

"We need to turn in our jewels for money, Dina. We'll see each other later, I promise." Cora finally said after a weird silence from the three of them.

"Yeah well I have these fossil rocks to clean and then I'll be heading back to Treasure Island. Just remember we have to check into the Ribular Hotel tonight."

"I know, I programmed it into my tablet as a reminder." Cora nodded before stepping around Dina and heading for the door.

"Kay, love, see you later." Alex smiled at Dina before following Cora out into the fighter station main hall. "Core, what was that about?"

"What was what about?"

He paused before replying. "Nothing, never mind, it's nothing to worry about. KL-33N said something of a fossil guild in Ribular. Do you know where that is?"

"I read that as you're looking at the front of the fighter station, just to your left will be the fossil guild. I have two emeralds to sell. I want to get a bigger fossil rock case and a bigger screen for my sonar. That way I'll be able to see more fossils at greater distances."

All fighters are given one thousand Gs when entered into the Cup. Selling her two emeralds, Cora then had three thousand Gs but Alex didn't get that much for his two jewels. Alex only had enough for a bigger fossil case, that was it and they both left with a bigger fossil case to store their fossil rocks in. As they were leaving the fossil guild they saw Dina going towards the TreasureLake path. She appeared to be deep in thought. Cora and Alex silently followed the blonde girl, curious as to what could be on her mind.

When they got back to the upper open field of TreasureLake there appeared to be a group. The group was sort of gathered around three figures but Cora couldn't see who they were. Todd was there to tell Dina that 'The' Rupert was there. He had entered into the Cup. As Dimwit and Dina went to go see what was going on Alex and Cora sort of stayed back to watch what was going on.

"Go figure, Rupert's in the competition. There goes my chance of actually winning. I would rather loose to you than to that bloke." Alex stated, crossing his arms.

"That makes me feel better, I think." Cora replied, confused to say the least.

**_I hate him._** Yang said. Cora was startled by the malice in her Yango's voice. **_He's a vile boy who doesn't care about his vivosaurs anyone else for that matter._**

**_ Why do you hate him so much, Yang?_** Cora's Cera asked.

**_I have my own reasons,_** came the response before Yang went silent.

"I'm worried about her." Cora placed her hand on her medal case. "I know she's never liked the Rupert guy but she never explained why. So I don't bother with it. Hey look, Dimwit is being stupid again, he's going after Rupert."

Sure enough after Rupert had been interviewed for Caliosteo TV, Todd had run off after Rupert towards the center of the dig site. Looking at each other briefly, Cora and Alex followed Dina. When they got to near to where Dimwit was Cora saw Todd through out his lone dino medal, which contained a Stego. He was up against a Raja and another vivosaur…one that Cora didn't recognize immediately.

"He needs to go after the Mapo first." Cora heard Alex say. "But he's weak against the Raja."

"Air beats water and earth beats air, fire beats earth and there is nothing strong or weak against a neutral. Yes, I know." Cora nodded. "He's a goner, you're right. He hasn't thought this through, like Dimwit usually does about anything else in his life."  
Yang made a noise but the attention was on Todd and Rupert. There was even a crowd milling about to watch the fossil battle. And it was over in no time.

"How is it that Rupert has more FP recharge than us?" A boy standing near Cora asked his friend.

Rupert had the speed advantage over Todd's tiny team. Yet when he went first he held off, letting Todd have the first turn. Stego used Spike Tail on Raja but it had missed, ending Todd's round in the match. Then it was Rupert's turn and there was an almost sickening smirk on his face.

"Raja, use Raja Fang on that no nothing Stego." Rupert said.

It was the shortest match in the history of fossil battles, I'm sure, Cora thought as Todd stood in defeat. The rest of the crowd started to disperse and head out of the dig site. The reason being was in the form of an FMS message. Round One of the Cup was starting and Cora was told who her partner was going to be.

"Round One battles will be starting soon. Toby has been selected as Cora's opponent. Please come straight to the fossil stadium as soon as possible to start your battle." Cora read the message out loud to herself, only Alex had heard her as well.

"I got some bird named Apple. Well best get out of here and get ready for our battles." Alex said, closing his pager and putting it in his pocket.

"Right, I'll try to catch yours, Kay?" Cora said, touching Alex's elbow slightly before running off, out of the dig site.

This was it, this was her chance to prove to Todd she had what it took to be better than him. She had her gear bag with her in the common room, where she kept her battle things. Half of battling was looking good for the audience, especially in contests like these. In her battle bag, which was small enough to carry on her hip with her medal case and her fossil rock case, was black tape and her brother had packed something in there. It was a pair of black sunglasses, something she often wore back at home but forgot to grab when she was packing. The black tape confused her vivosaurs.

**_ Why black tape? _**Aeros asked as Cora was taping her wrists.

"I don't know, I just like the look. It's mostly for theatrical looks. Each fighter has a different style, mine is a little darker than others. During camp I was told that a good memorable fighter is one where you can make an impression on the fans."

Her pager went off next to where Cora was sitting. It wasn't an FMS message, but rather it was an incoming call from another paleopager, this ID image on the pager read Andy. There was only one Andy that was willing to contact her.

"Andy, why are you calling?" Cora asked upon opening the line of communication between her pager and his.

"Well hello to you too little sister, I'm fine how are you?" He toyed with her.

"Andy, I'm preparing for my Round One battle. I'm almost on."

"Good because if you win this round IU'll shoot you over something special from VivosaurIsland."

Cora looked up at a nearby television screen hanging up on the wall over the stadium doors to see Alex's match going on. This made Cora smile as she turned back to her conversation with Andy.

"Andy I have a request, just to help a friend out around here." She said smiling slightly.

Alex walked through the door into the common room with his opponent following behind him. The girl was solemnly looking down at her feet as she headed towards her locker in defeat. There was a tear falling down her pale cheek as she closed her parasol. He had to do something to make her feel better, Alex concluded, so he caught her arm slightly and looked down at her. Not like he had much of a choice, he was taller than average for his age.

"You need more practice, doll." He said. "Remember the elemental advantages and having a good support team to your attacking vivosaurs. And most of all, you need to learn to is to have fun."

"It was fun, wasn't it?" Apple asked, wiping away her tears. "Good luck in the Cup. With Rupert here, you'll need to get way better if you're going to beat him."

"Don't remind me, doll." Alex mumbled to himself as he stopped at his nearby locker space.

Cora approached with a boy at her side. "Looks like Toby and I are up. Great match, Alex, you were great."

"Yeah and good luck to you two out there. The crowd wants great matches. Don't let them eat you up." Alex responded as Cora walked around his tall frame.

The fossil battle didn't start out as Cora had hopped. Even though Toby and Cora had the same FP, Toby's team was faster because of his Thalasso. Thalasso also had FP Plus, which gave Toby's team more FP at the start of his round. With Thalasso in support in the way back and a Tricera and a Menchi in the front attack modes, Cora felt inadequate in her preparations for the battle. She had her Cera and Yang in the support positions and Aeros in attack.

"Alright guys, better hold onto your tails. This is going to be a tough one," Cora called out to her  
vivosaur team from her fighter's box stand.

Cora had a strategy, she hoped. As expected Toby had his Tricera attack Yang, and then Thalasso attack her Cera. Odd, you'd think with Tricera and Thalasso being water types they would go after Yang at the same time. Toby had used up his FP, he didn't have enough for a move for Menchi, so it was Cora's turn.

"Alright, guys. It's our turn. Aeros, use Wind Blast on Thalasso." Cora ordered her main attacker.

Aeros' Wind Blast from his distance took out Thalasso effortlessly. The down side, he used up the 70 FP that she had so her turn was over. The down side about knocking off your opponent's vivosaurs is that the opponent will get an FP recharge, allowing them to get more hits off. Now Cora was getting worried because Yang was not that good with defense at her weakened state.

"Are you still good there, Yang?" Cora asked, as Toby was thinking of his next move, eyeing Cora's vivosaurs' stats up on a large screen on the stadium wall.

**_I'm still kick._** She responded, focused on her battle opponents.

From the reserves Raja spoke up. **_May I suggest a sacrifice so that Cora can easily stay in the game?_**

**_ I think that's a good idea. I'll sacrifice myself so that Cera and Aeros can take out Toby's Menchi and Tricera._** Yang agreed, she was already half health points as it was anyway.

"Okay, that's if he does his turn right."

Toby finally had his Tricera do a Running Smash on Yang, leaving her with 15 HP. With one Menchi Stomp, Yang was eliminated from the battle. This left Cora with Aeros and Cera. Since Toby had used two attacks his turn was over. Then it was Cora's turn again.

"Aeros, Wind Blast on Tricera. Cera, Running Thrust on Menchi." Cora had hoped that Cera was strong enough to take out the Menchi in one hit.

Oh big problem, it didn't.

Cera only managed to get Menchi to about 10 HP, leaving Cora one round out and Menchi with a whole heck of a lot of FP on his side. The only good thing was the Aeros had managed to eliminate Tricera, leaving Cora with two vivosaurs on the field and Toby with one.

"Hold your grounds, guys. This is almost over." Cora told them as it went to Toby's turn.

Toby, in a last ditch effort, had his Menchi do Menchi Stomp on Aeros, but it didn't do much good. Aeros was still in the attack position and Menchi was a long distance vivosaur. So basically Toby wasted his chance and it was Cora's last turn.

"Okay, Tricera, Running Thrust on Menchi for the win!" Cora called out to her team.

Sure enough, it was a win for Cora. When Menchi went back to his medal and it was announced that Cora was the winner, she ran out to congratulate her two last standing vivosaurs. She picked up Yang's medal before she went and hugged Cera's huge head. Aeros turned around from his victory roar and nudged Cora's auburn hair with his blue/green snout.

**_Did I do well?_** Yang asked, speaking up with hope in her voice.

"Honey, you did great. I can't wait to find more body pieces to get you stronger." Cora said looking down at the medal in her hand. "Okay, Cera, Aeros, return!"

After collecting her dino medals from the field, Cora and Toby headed back to the common room. For once Cora felt, elated that she had managed to win her first official FA battle at the CaliosteoFossilPark.

"Dude, that was one awesome battle." Toby's voice broke into Cora's thoughts as she stopped at her locker. "Man, I hope I get better so that I can maybe beat you some day." Toby was actually jumping on the balls of his feet, jumping with anticipation.

"You had me worried for a moment, but that's what I get for bringing a fire type to a water fight." She smiled at the younger boy.

Her paleopager beeped, and Cora looked at it. On the screen was her status page and it was telling her that she was at a level two fighter rank. Her FP recharge was 80 and her Max FP was 220. It made Cora feel a little more empowering.

Stella startled Cora by appearing behind her. "Congratulations on winning, Cora. I'm giving this to all the winning fighters. Time Pluses give you an extra thirty seconds of cleaning time for fossil cleaning. Good luck on your next Round tomorrow." Stella said before going off to talk to someone else.

Cora stuck around with Alex, in part to watch Dina cream Dimwit in a no nothing match. Also she called Andy to tell him that she had made it through Round One.

"Great, so you'll receive them tomorrow morning, I promise. Talk to you later, sis." Andy then hung up on her.

Alex had decided to turn in early for the night. He gently hugged Cora before heading out of the fighter station. That left Cora with Dina and then Dimwit stalked up to them.

"How can I get beat out by the Baby? And who was that guy you were hugging?"

"That's none of your business, Dimwit."  
"His name is Alex Knight." Dina supplied to her friend.

"Is he your boyfriend, Little Baby Cora?" Todd made some lip smacking sounds towards her.

"Dina, Alex is a friend, he's my friend. You better leave him alone or…" Cora didn't know how to end that sentence.

"Or what, you'll sick your boyfriend on her?" Todd laughed. "Like that Yango is of any use anyway. She's worthless in your team."  
"You know what, Todd Sanders, you're just mad because I beat round one while you got pwned by your best friend. I'm smarter than you, I've got more skills nd the only reason why you hate me is why I fear dogs. Sit on that and think about it. I'm going to my hotel room. I have an idea for a synchronizing device for a paleopager."

"You're as bad as that Rupert kid." Todd tried to put the last word in.

"At least I knew how to run elemental advantages in my battle." Cora turned and walked away.

**_Why are you and Todd at odds? Hey, I just rhymed._** Cera laughed are her lame joke.

"I don't want to talk about it." Cora replied, looking at the ground as she walked towards her hotel.


	4. Chapter 3: Round Two Part One

**This is the first half of Round 2. I had a lot of writer's block concerning this and the next chapter, I still do but I can't seem to get a fit for the story. I promised myself that I will Dare myself To Be read by others and judged. That's what a writer does, don't they? I want To Be seen and known too. So Enjoy!**

* * *

In the morning after the previous Round One day Alex rose early. RibularIsland mornings were cool but not too cold so he wouldn't have to take a jacket with him, Alex concluded as he stretched before the rising sun. He smiled at the reflection staring back at him in the glass window as he decided to jump in the show. While there, he hadn't heard it, Plato did though, the distinct chirping sound of the paleopager that was resting on his nightstand table where Alex had put it the night before.

**_You got an FMS message, _**Plato said once Alex had stepped out of the bathroom usng a towel to dry his long hair.

"I'll worry about it in a moment, I need to get my hair in a ponytail or it will frizz out on me." Alex replied while finding his hair brush on the top of the hotel dresser.

Once Alex had done his hair he picked up the paleopager. The message on the screen said that he had a fossil rock delivery waiting for him at the fossil lawn. It didn't say who sent the rock so Alex had to go figure out who would do that for him, especially without telling him first.

"I know no one who is a fossil fighter outside of the competition. Who could or would do that, send me a fossil rock?" He asked locking his door.

Aires yawned from within his dino medal. **_Amigo, maybe you have a fan._**

"I highly doubt that." Alex said as he neared the elevator on his floor.

The trek to the fossil lawn wasn't far, it was to the right of the town center in RibularTown. When he got there, Alex was sort of shocked to see Cora there picking up four fossil rocks. The wind blew at her auburn hair as she examined each rock before putting them in her fossil rock case. Cora was wearing all black, making the red in her hair stand out even more. She hadn't seen him at all as Alex went to the fossil lawn attendant to see about his fossil rock delivery.

"Excuse me, I got an FMS message saying that I have a fossil rock here." Alex said looking at the woman.

"It's over there," she pointed near the fossil cannon. "It will have your name etched into the rock."

"Oh, okay, thank you." He nodded before going to look at the rock.

There was only one fossil rock, and it was a solid square fossil rock, nothing extraordinary about it. Alex was contemplating if he should take it or not when she noticed him. Cora had picked up the last of her surprise fossil rocks from Andy when she saw Alex. He was kneeling in front off the fossil rock she had asked her brother to send to Alex, as a surprise of course.

"Alex, good morning. I see you got it." The twelve year old said, approaching the older boy.

"Got what exactly?" Alex asked, standing up to his full six foot five height.

"I had my big brother Andy send you a Daspleto body fossil rock for finishing Round One." She smiled brightly, knowing she had done a good deed.

Alex, though, didn't think that at all. His handsome face turned dangerously cold, unlike what he had been like the previous day.

"What? Why? Do you think I'm incapable of getting Plato's pieces on my own?" Alex's voice steadily rose as his anger built.

"No, I was helping. I wanted…" she didn't even finish her sentence when Alex started walking away. "Alex, wait!"

"I don't care what you have to say. I don't want this bloody thing, you can keep it."

Cora ran up towards him, which was hard to do when he had longer legs that she did.

"Alex, what's wrong?"

She grabbed his arm, but when she did Alex jerked it away. Cora stumbled forward, landing squarely on her hands and knees on the stone path that ran through the fossil lawn towards the fossil cannon. In mild pain, and looking through her hair, Cora saw that Alex was running away. His long legs were carrying him faster than she expected. He hadn't even turned around to see what made Cora give out a startled shriek.

* * *

When Dina heard that Cora was in the infirmary that morning, she wasted no time to see what happened. The infirmary was located near the staff leader's office in the Fossil Station. As Cora got to the infirmary, she saw Cora sitting on an examination table, her pants rolled up to over her knees and they were bandaged. Dina also saw that Stella was tending to Cora's scraped hands.

"Cora, what happened?" Dina asked walking further into the room.

"I tripped and fell. Alex didn't like his gift, I tried to stop him from walking away but I tripped. It's not his fault but I needed some first aid." Cora said, not daring to look at her cousin.

"Unfortunately, you can't be digging up fossil rocks, not until your hands heal." Stella said taping up her hands with some sports tape over the bandages. "You can clean but I wouldn't suggest digging anything up right now." She stepped back, snapping off the medical gloves. "You're good to go, Cora. But remember, no digging for fossils. Her knees aren't bad but her hands took the brunt of the fall though." Stella told Dina as Cora slid off the exam table.

"Thanks. I can take her from here."

"No, I'm going back to my hotel room. What good am I if I can't dig for fossil rocks?" Cora asked reaching for her jacket on a nearby chair.

Cora walked out of the room, intent on going to her hotel room but Dina danced her way in front of the copper haired girl.

"Come with me to the newly opened dig site. It'll take your mind off of him for a while. Plus we haven't spent anytime together in two years, I feel like I don't know you anymore."

It took just the sight of Alex walking to the cleaning room, smoldering in anger it looked like, to get Cora to agree with her cousin. She didn't want to meet up with Alex any time soon.

"As long as you help me look for a Raja body part later, I only have his head and he's still sort of weak compared to my other vivosaurs." Cora said.

"I promise." Dina smiled at her cousin.

Cora and Dina headed towards the newly opened dig site. Cora's hands were still hurting and were now slightly itching. But she had to focus on the back of Dina's blonde head to forget. It wasn't until the two of them got to the start of the dig site that Cora realized someone was laying prone on the ground near the entrance path.

"Should we help him?" Cora asked, looking up at her cousin slightly.

"We should, you don't anything to worry about with me here." Dina looked at her cousin in return before heading towards the strange man.

The two approached the man lying on his side. Cora stood sort of next to but behind Dina out of instinct if this turned bad. Amidst the moaning, groaning and rubbing of his stomach, the man opened his eyes. Though Cora wasn't sure if he could see them though. He had the bushiest grey eyebrows she'd ever seen on a human.

"Oh right. Hello there. So sorry to bother you but I appear to be in a bit of a pickle. Hunger gnaws at my belly, you see, and I fear the only cure is a delectable melon spud. A sing one of these sweet subterranean spuds would have me up and about in no time. Ah but a melon spud is a clever beastie. Where could it be hiding?"

Cora saw Dina look around. She wracked her brain trying to remember something from her grandmother's garden. The old man started speaking again, breaking Cora's thought.

"I say, I sense a melon spud buried right near this spot. You'll spy a vibrant green sprout that marks the location of the precious melon spud. Now be a good egg and find it for me, won't you? Else I fear the end is nigh for this old codger." He said before going back to moaning again.

"A melon spud, I've never heard of those before." Dina looked at Cora for an answer.

"I have. My grandma, Dad's mom, use to grow them in her garden. Um let me see…" Glancing around, Cora smiled. "The ole coot wasn't lying about one being near. It's over there." She pointed to the right of the prone man. "You better dig it up. I can't, not with my hands."

They headed over to the green plant, larger than the mix of yellow, green and yellow-green grass around it. Taking her ax, Dina swung at the spud in the ground, and dug it up with no problem, then she and Cora headed back to the strange man. Cora stayed back a few steps knowing what would happen if someone without energy would eat just one melon spud.

For and old man, he jumped straight into the air like a kick to the shorts. Despite his age, the old strange speaking English guy was looking far better than a feeble old man he had been before. He could pass as a relative to Santa Claus, wearing Safari Cloths.

"Ho ho! Well done, old bean. That melon spud has given me an injection of youthful vim and vigor." He paused briefly when Cora approached. "By jove, there are two of you. My thanks to the both of you and I would humbly request the pleasure of your names."

"I'm Dina and this is my cousin."

"I'm Cora." She said, not want to let her cousin over shadow her again.

"So Dina and Cora is it? Well then, Dina, Cora, it appears that I am in your debt. I am Professor Nigel Scatterly, man of science and cuator of the CaliosteoMuseum on Cranial Isle." He laughed. "I'd come here in search of the Calio Slablets, but somehow managed to get hopelessly lost. Also I forgot my lunch on the counter when I left this morning, so it's quite good the both of you came along."  
"Um, what are Calio Slablets, exactly?" Cora asked.

"How's that. You want me to explain what Calio Slablets are?"

**_She just asked you that, Dude._** Cora heard a voice that didn't belong to any of her vivosaurs. It must have been one from Dina's team.

"Well capital idea. There's little I enjoy more than discussing the wonders of science after all!" Scatterly exclaimed happily. "Yes well, where to begin? Calio Slablets, you see, are curious sets of tablets hewn from dinosaur bones. I discovered one of these tablets a fair while back and found it contained a history of these islands."

"That sounds cool, actually." Cora said, tilting her head slightly to the right.

"It quite is. This tablet explained that the long-lost kingdom of Caliosteo actually existed on this very spot. Can you imagine? I also determined that this ancient kingdom was led by a mighty ruler named Zongzonga. Now it seems this Zongzonga fellow was some manner of sorcerer who wielded spells of great power. He even had the power to resurrect dinosaurs from fossils. I say, can you imagine? Such a thing means they were reviving vivosaurs in prehistoric times! Natutually I burn to know more of these ancient people but I had only Calio Slablet #1 in my possession. However since they bothered to number the one I found, logic demanded that there must be others. So knowing this, I fashioned a special CS Sonar to search them out."

No sooner had Prof. Scatterly said that, a high pitched beeping sound went off on his belt. The intrigue was killing Cora by now.

"Hello, what's this then?" The professor took his sonar off his belt. "It seems the CS Sonar has detected another Slablet. Stand aside, children, I must excavate it with all due speed."

Only his name came true, Scatter Brained Scatterly forgot his pick ax. So naturally he asked the girls to do it for him.

"Hmm, it appears you are injured, old bean." Scatterly said seeing Cora's hands. "So you will have to do it, Dina. You must do it, please. Do it. Do it for science!"

Dina nodded as she took out her pick ax.

It took her three hits before Cora saw something coming from the ground. Just as Dina was to make another swing Cora called out to her."

"Dina, wait! I see something in the ground." Cora said stepping up to the hole. "Yeah, there it is, that's what I see."

What was dug up was a tan fossil rock, except it looked like a piece of toast. It was a piece of toast with hieroglyphs etched into it on all sides. It was also bigger than a piece of toast. This must have been a Slablet, Cora concluded as she handed it over to Scatterly.

"Good heavens, it IS a Calio Slablet. And look here, its marked with the number three. I suppose the prudent thing would be to set this one aside until I find the second Slablet…"  
"My curiosity is piqued, I'd like to know what it says." Cora said, looking at the professor.

"Too right, my girl. My curiousity will not be contained. Come, old beans, let us free whatever wisdom waits to be heard." Scatterly exclaimed before translating the Slablet.

This is what it said:

_Once everyone several decades, Zongazonga compelled his people to hold a tournament, participants in the tournament were given revived dinosaurs and made to command them in battle. These brave warriors traveled to and fro across the islands, waging battles of gargantuan ferocity. The tournament's sole reason for being was to choose a new Majestic Vessel. And when only one warrior was left standing, he or she would become the new Majestic Vessel._

"I say," Cora looked up from the Slablet at Scatterly. "A contest in which dinosaurs are made to fight across the three islands…The similarity to our own Caliosteo Cup is remarkable."

"But what is a Majestic Vessel?" Cora pondered out loud.

"However, I am at a loss for that. Perhaps it simply means one who has the qualities of leadership to befit a King? Hmm, yes quite."

**_Yes, quite confusing indeed._** Yang mentioned to Cora.

"Well then, I suppose that mystery will have to wait until the other Slablets are discovered, yes? I shall make for Cranial Isle with this new Slablet posthaste." Scatterly placed the Slablet into his satchel before turning back towards the girls. "You both have been remarkable assistance to me, Dina and Cora. Both myself and Science owe you a great deal. If either of you are on the shores of Cranial Isle you must stop by my museum. It is a gallery and depository of items bother rare and wonderful, and I promise it will not disappoint. And of course I will put this here Calio Slablet #3 on display next to the first one I found. Safe travels, now. Tallyho!"  
Scatterly started running back towards the jungle.

"Wait, Professor. You're going the wrong way!" Cora called out. "That will leading you further into the dig site!"

"I beg your parden?" He stopped suddenly. "This will take me into the jungle labyrinth? Yes, well," he readjusted his hat as he walked back towards Cora and Dina. "Wouldn't want that at all, now would we? It seems I am in your debt again, young lady. This time, it is farewell for sure. Tallyho!" He ran by them, towards the path that would go back to RibularTown. Now it was Cora and Dina again.

"Should we just go further into the dig site? It seems to be a waste of time just to leave now." Cora said looking at Dina. "I just don't want to see Alex right now."

"Okay. I'll share half of my jewel rocks that I find with you." She was about to leave when Dina stopped. "What did Andy send you? He never said he would send me anything after I win my Round Battles."

"I'm sure he would if you actually asked. I only did it for Alex because I wanted to help."

"Maybe he didn't want hand outs, he wants to earn the right to find and earn his fossils. I don't know why would yell at you like that but maybe he has a reason. You should get friend more your age anyway."

"Don't start, Dina, I'm not in the mood." Cora mumbled heading towards the path that went further into the Jungle Labyrinth dig site.

No sooner had Cora and Dina entered the forest they heard a familiar voice. The voice alone made Cora roll her eyes as Dina turned towards her odd ball friend.

**_Here comes trouble,_** Yang said.

**_He's kind of cute, for a human._** Cera stated in a voice that Cora couldn't put it as.

"Oh be quiet. He's not cute, he's annoying." Cora whispered to her Team.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey…" Todd said running up. "Oh hey, Cora. Are you digging hard or hardly digging?" He laughed at her. "Word gets around fast about your spat with your boyfriend and how you were a klutz, again."

"Todd for once, shut up." Cora said, stepping between him and her cousin. "I'm helping her out for a little bit."

"Fine, anyway, I have some good news. If we go deeper into the Jungle Labyrinth there's tons of cool fossil rocks. And since we're both here, Dina, I figured we could go digging together. The Baby can watch, I guess."

"Cora, don't." Dina said as Cora began to open her mouth. "Let's get this over with okay? No fighting, and I mean it, from the both of you."

"Fine." Cora said, turning from the Dimwit to leave, only to stop when she heard screaming.

**_What is that?_** She heard her Aeros ask.

Two grown men came running from the forest. Cora recognized them as Howard and Cary, brothers who shared a room next to hers at the hotel. Cora stepped out of the way or she would have been bowled over by the two men.

"Wh-What's wrong." For the first time in a long time Cora heard Todd getting scared of something.

"Back there, in the back, it's a horrible monster." Howard spoke up first.

"It was chasing us lit it was going to eat us whole. Or maybe it wanted to chew us first. Either way, that's not something I'm interested in." Cary added.

Howard turned towards his brother. "What if it decides to keep chasing us? What if it comes here?"  
"Run Away!" Cary yelled before running away, his brother following right behind him.

"Well, that was interested." Cora mumbled to herself as she looked at Dina and Todd.

"A monster? Heh heh, yeah there's no such thing as monsters," he looked at Dina. "Right?"

"They must have been mistaken, more than likely." Cora put in knowing real monsters didn't exist. _'Yet here we are fighting revived dinosaurs_,' she thought to herself.

"Now see here, little lady, I gotta disagree. Ain't no way two grown men make the same mistake, unh-huh." A southern voice asked nearing the three kids. "Way I hear it, we got a big ol' monster lurking in this here jungle. It got a mean ol' face and a personality to match. And if it happens to find ya, it'll bite your head clean off. I'd avoice going deeper into this ol' jungle unless you wanna get yourself hur, unh-huh. Fossil rocks don't mean nothin' if some monster gets to chewin' on you." Then this Elvis impersonator walked off, smiling.

**_I don't trust him if he's smiling._** Yang stated as Cora watched the strange man leave.

**_He's so calm about this so called monster, too. If a monster was real you would think he would be a little bit more afraid._** Cera added.

"Uh, Dina, maybe we should stop here for today. What do you think? I mean I'm not scared or anything. My vivosaur could stomp that monster into a pancake."

**_No I can't._** The voice of Todd's Stego said, it sounded almost as scared as its trainer did.

"There's probably tons of fossil rocks right here." Todd smiled nervously.

"You can but I won't. There's something strange about that Elvis wannabe. There are no such things as monsters." Cora paused. "Now I sound like Velma from Scooby Doo."

"I have to agree with Cora. Something doesn't feel right." Dina told Todd.

"Oh, so you still want to go in, huh? Yeah, of course you two do. Well all right, I'll go with you. B-b-but it's just that…Oh my stomach, it's killing me. I shouldn't have eaten that green tuna sandwich for breakfast." He walked under a tree nearby, sort of off the path. "S-sorry, but you two can go by yourselves. I'll catch up soon, I promise."

Dina nodded and started up the path. Cora stood looking at Todd though.

"What?" He asked not meeting her in the face.

"Look who's the baby now." She smirked before running after Dina.

**_Serves him right,_** Yango said, smiling to herself.

**_What is it between you two that you hate each other so much?_** Cera asked, but didn't get an answer from Cora.

**_She hasn't told me and it's been two years that we've been together as a team._** The fire stegosaur replied.


	5. Chapter 4: Round 2 Part 2

**Hi All, this was a hard decision but I had to split Round 2 into two chapters. With the length and dialogue going on, I'm going to have to do this more often. I want to thank 1Teffla1Shenliu1Tophis and Pikachuluver2012 for your comments, I really do appreciate them. Gosh, this chapter was sort of hard to write, especially the ending. I have no idea where I am going with this story but I want to finish a chapter fic.**

* * *

"Dina, does this jungle remind you of the Louisiana forests and bayous, just without the swamps?" Cora asked, looking around her.

The forest had vines, moss, and towering trees. Most of the colors were green, gold and grey. The gold was from the sun coming through the canopy at odd intervals. It was quiet too, and there was an odd feeling in the air that even the birds weren't singing. Except in Louisiana, even the strange sounds were welcoming.

"Yeah but it feels empty." Dina said.

"Like the life was scared from it."

As they explored the second section of the dense jungle, Dina dug up fossil rocks and jewel rocks. As a team, Cora would work the sonar and locate the different pings and Dina would dig them up. Half of what Dina dug up she marked for Cora's portion of the finds. Every once in a while Cora would see Todd near the jungle entrance pacing, looking worried or whatever he was doing. It was hard to see through the trees though.

"After this is over I'm going to try to get a fossil chip for my sonar. I need to strengthen Raja's and Aeros' defense stats." Cora said, turning to scan for any more pings in the area. "I still haven't found the body piece to Raja yet."

"Same here, Core. How are the hands?" Dina asked, walking up to her cousin.

"Itching like crazy, but they are okay. There are no more pings for fossil rocks or anything in this area. I think we got them all. We should head to the next section of the jungle."

Deeper the cousins went, the deeper they went and the greater the anticipation came. Anticipation led to curiosity as Cora looked at the ground.

"Hey Dina, these tracks looks like they were made from wheels." She said pointing to the ground. Dina looked too, seeing the distinct tire impressions in the dirt. "Dina, there are no vehicles here, nothing without tires at least."

"Yeah, I haven't seen as much as a skateboard in RibularTown." The blonde responded.

"Hey," Todd's voice called out to them. He ran up as Cora and Dina stood from the tire tracks. "Sorry it took so long. I bet you were lonely without me, huh?"

"Nope, I was perfectly fine without you here." Cora remarked.

"Cora, Todd, will you two stop acting like a bunch of kids and grow up?" Dina rolled her eyes in frustration.

"Look, maybe we should stop here, you know. It's not because I'm scared. It's just because, well we've gone a long way already, you know." He was fidgeting again, Cora noticed.

**-*Rustle*Rustle*Rustle*-**

There was a rustling sound of a bush nearby. Cora couldn't tell from where but she Dina and Todd had heard it as well. Tod was shaking like a leaf, but Cora was on high alert. The last time this happened she swore she would hate Todd for all eternity.

"What's that? Who's there?" He looked around, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. "It's just the wind. Yeah, that's it. It's the wind. Or a wild boar. That would be good, too."

"What about a wild dog with rabies, Dimwit. Ever think of that?" Cora asked seeing a nearby bush move. That's why she was moving backwards away from it.

Dina saw the bush move, too and went closer to look. Trying to act brave, Todd went ahead of her to see what it was while Cora protectively stood back in case she needed to run. As Dina and Todd approached some pink headed person, a girl, jumped from the bush and landing directly in front of Todd. Of course the scaredy cat screamed.

"EEEEK! M-m-monster!" He yelled, running away.

What Cora hadn't seen was the mask the pink haired girl was wearing. Since the noise wasn't an animal, Cora approached to stand with Dina. The masked reminded her of a VivosaurIsland tale she read about the Digadig people in Knotwood forest, but what had they…She couldn't remember. It had been some years since Cora had read about the Digadig tribe. This pink haired, mask wearing girl also wore a grass skirt. Odd, Cora thought.

**_Really odd,_** Cera and Yango chorused together.

"Did he just call me a monster. 'Cause that's kind of an insulting," the strange girl said before looking at the two cousins. "I don't know if you noticed but I happen to be amazingly beautiful and charming."

**_Oh, she's charming all right._** Aeros mumbled.

"Who are you exactly?" Dina voiced for her and Cora.

"Huh? Who am I? Are you for real? Do you live in a cave or something? All right, dig the wax out of your ears and listen up." She put her hands on her hips. "I'm the girl who's going to win the Caliosteo Cup and be the biggest teen idol in the whole world." She did a girly twirl and a pose Cora had never seen before. "I'm Pauleen."

Cora and Dina glanced at each other before staring at the girl in disbelief.

"What, why are you two looking at me like that? Is it the mask? It's the mask, right? Look, there's a very good reason I can't take this mask off. But trust me, I am totally beautiful underneath it. People faint when I walk by. I'm serious."

An unknown voice, deep in tone, spoke. **_She's not serious is she?_**

"You're fighters, too, right? Well then, you should introduce yourselves. It's only fair you know." Pauleen told them.

"Well, I'm Dina and this is my cousin Cora."

"It must be a real thrill for you two to finally meet me, isn't it?"

**_Not really,_** Yango said but Cora silenced her by putting a hand over her medal case.

"Did you hear about the monster that's running around the Jungle?" Pauleen asked them.

"There's no such thing as monsters. I have a feeling…" Cora started to say but Pauleen interrupted her.

"Well anyway, I'm going to fight it and I'm going to win. Oh hey, Dina, I just had a great idea. You should come along. Sorry, kid, this is for us teenagers. I'm going to be a teen idol after all."

"No, I'm going to find out what's going on here. No girl in a mask is going to stop me." Cora looked the taller girl over. Do you Dig me, Pauleen?"

The masked girl was sweating, from fear or anger Cora wasn't sure. "That's good. The more people witnessing how awesome I am, and tell everyone about the new favorite teen-idol is better. That's a great idea, I'm so glad I'm around to think of these things. Well, come on you two. I don't have all day."

**_Who'd want to spend all day with her?_** Cera asked.

"Fine but I'm helping my cousin find fossil rocks. She hurt herself and can't dig for a while."

"Whatever, help the kid but if we see that monster we take care of it first." Pauleen stated, crossing her arms.

In this new area Cora found four pings, only one turned out to be a normal rock. Two fossil rocks and a jewel rock later, the entire area was cleared. That's when Cora noticed more tire impressions heading to the deepest part of the jungle. At first it was hard to notice but she saw the path as she was following the tire tracks.

"Dina, I found more tire tracks, they lead this way." Cora called out.

Dina was at a nearby VMM machine with Pauleen. She was readjusting her vivosaur team and when she heard Cora, she pulled her medal case out and headed towards Cora.

"Stick behind us, Kid. This for those of us who know how to fight," Pauleen looked at Cora. "I'm actually excited to see what this monster looks like. And I know it's excited to see me."

Cora rolled her eyes and followed the two older teens. In a flash behind her, Yang appeared, causing the other girls to look on in confusion. All the injured girl did was shrug.

"Yang wants to protect me if you guys get eaten up."

Yang lumbered behind Cora. Coar was following Dina, Pauleen and the tire tracks. The trainer and vivosaur weren't in the way but Pauleen still voiced her opinion openly.

"You know, Yangos are not as skilled as Stegos. They are weak and only have two useful skills." Pauleen glanced back at Cora.

"Actually, Joe Wildwest let me have her after her previous trainer abandoned her two years ago. She and I have a bond that you probably will never understand, nor will be honored to ever have."

"Cora, that was rude." Dina said.

"I'm being more assertive, she doesn't have to be a brat about it."

"Well, this is the deepest part of the jungle." Pauleen changed the subject by looking at Dina. "I don't see a monster anywhere."

A moment later a loud sound came from in front of them. Yang came around to stand in front of her injured trainer while they both watched Pauleen and Dina go in.

**_It's a fake. The monster is a fake._** Yang said tilting her head to look at it.

"So it is. Hey, look those two guys, they are attacking Dina and Pauleen. We need to help." Cora was stopped by Yang. "Come on, they need me."

**_It's only a fossil battle. Look, two air types to a Raja. Sure Tricera is weak to Nycto and Anomalo but Raja has the elemental advantage._**

"Is that an Amargo?" Cora asked seeing Pauleen's team at a distance for the first time.

**_It appears so. I can take it, though._** Cera mentioned in delight.

Cora smiled but stopped when she heard voice coming from behind her. Stella came running up just as Pauleen and Dina finished their fossil battles with the two cheating fossil fighters Jerry and Lee.

"Are you okay, Cora?" The staff leader asked.

"Yeah but those two men were scaring fossil fighters from digging in this area. You should talk to Dina and Pauleen about it."

With a nod Stella and Cora and the rest of the staff members went in to investigate.

"Are you all right, Dina?" Stella asked as they got to the clearing where the four fighters were. Hmm, a homemade monster, eh, now what could this be for."

Dina gave Stella and the staff the load down on what was going on.

"Interesting, so they were scaring off the other Fighters in order to claim all the fossil rocks themselves?" With a huff, Stella turned to the two hooligans. "Seize them."

The two men took off running, not like they could go anywhere with this being the back of the dig site. While the two male staff members were chasing the bad guys Stella turned back to Dina, Pauleen, Cora and her Yango.

"You have Todd to thank for my being here, Dina, Cora. He came running to me in a panic, wailing about how some monster was going to swallow you whole." She neared the busted up monster machine, wheels and all that had blown up and scattered around the area. "I was expecting some kind of trouble but not this. Still, Fighters are now free to dig for fossils here so I suppose it all turned out all right. We owe the three of you our thanks."

"Three? But the Kid didn't do anything." Pauleen said, pointing to Cora.

"What, you don't Dig that?" She asked, glaring at Pauleen.

Just then the two hooligans were escorted back to Stella. It was deemed that they would be disqualified and thrown out of the park all together. Cora learned that someone was going to come on by and pick up the fake monster for evidence against the two men. After that was announced the two of them were ushered away. Stella stopped and turned back to the three kids.

"See you later, Dina, Cora. And you too, Pauleen."

Pauleen turned to Dina and laughed. "Ha, serves them right. Hey so thanks for helping me out, Dina. You're pretty good at this. Not as good as me. But you're pretty good."

**_That was nice of her._** Yang snorted audibly, causing the pink haired girl to look at her.

"What's that thing's problem?"

"Like me, she doesn't like you very much."

"Cora, please." Her cousin shook her head.

Just then Todd came running out of the middle of the jungle. "Hey Dina, you're alive." He hadn't seen Pauleen at first, until he turned to look at her. "EEEK, the monster's right here."

"Stop calling me a monster. I'm a teen idol, and a fighter…And my name is Pauleen. So if you ever call me a monster again, I'll knock you out." She said showing him her fist.

"Well if you don't want to be called a monster, you shouldn't wear a mask." Todd took a step towards her. Why don't you take it off?"  
Now this is where Cora just sort of tuned everyone out. She decided it was best to start digging. He hands didn't hurt, and as long as she wore some gloves to protect her hands then it wouldn't hurt as bad.

"Dina, Yang and I are going to explore in this area a little bit more. I want to fill up the rest of my fossil rock case before going to clean them at the cleaning room."

"Are you sure, what about your hands?"

"They're good. I'll just wear my gloves when I dig for fossils. I need to also go back to TreasureLake anyway and find that one piece for Raja. I want to prepare for Round Two starts in an hour or so."

"Sure, that sounds good. Here, this is your half of the haul." Dina said taking her fossil case off her belt.

Once Cora had been given her share of the fossil rocks and jewel rocks, she and Yang went off. She didn't want to deal with Pauleen or Todd, and she really wanted to find what she came to the Jungle Labyrinth for. Nycto and Stego, those were the two that she had really wanted.

"That way you won't be alone, Yang, you'll have a Stego with you. Your own cousin, like I have Dina as mine."

**_Maybe that cousin is in one of these fossil rocks that you found._**

"We won't know until I clean them. And I still need Raja's body. Since this area is cleared we need to go back to RibularTown and finish off the case before the next round starts."

Yang turned back into her medal and off they went. Getting up from the ground and heading over to the orange VMM machine, Cora prepared for the trip to come. Teleportation was something she had never indulged in before, not since coming to the fossil park. It felt tingly as she appeared on the helipad at the center of town. The only thing was, Cora headed towards TreasureLake and as she stepped into the dig site itself, she saw someone walking towards her.

Alex was walking up the hill towards her to leave the dig site when Cora walked in. They both stopped at the same time, Cora in shock and fear while Alex's face was hard to read.

**_Don't do this to her,_** Cora could hear Raj, Alex's Raja, say to his trainer.

"Be quiet, she can hear you, remember?" Alex whispered harshly while walking around Cora, who looked dumbfounded.

Shaking her head, Cora took out her sonar. "The sooner I find more of Raja, the sooner I can start Round Two."

An hour later, when Cora was coming out of the cleaning room, an FMS came through her paleopager. She learned that of all people her opponent was Howard, one of the men she had seen in the jungle when the fake monster was scaring people. So now with a Nycto, a Stego named Spike, Yang, Cera and Raja, Cora was ready for her next battle round. Of course she had some practice before hand, someone had challenged her to a fossil battle for the Raja body piece that Cora was looking for and now with Nycto, she was faster than ever. After a quick wardrobe change, applying the sport tape and now sporting her lucky set of sunglasses, Cora was ready for Round 2.

Howard was waiting for her in the Common Room and smiled when she approached.

"I heard that you were one of the fighters that learned about the monster hoax in the jungle. Now I feel like a moron for running away like a little girl."

"I am a little girl." She said flatly, looking at him through her sunglasses.

He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Right. Well, get ready, we're on next."

Howard's team consisted of all air types. Stego, Nycto and Goyle. Goyle was in support with Nycto and Stego was in attack mode on the field. Cora opted for Nycto and Yang in the support position and Raja stood regally at the attack position on her side of the field. The speeds were tallied and Cora got to go first.

"Well, Raja, let's take out the supports, yeah. Do Raja Fang on the Nycto, Raja."

Raja managed to take out the flying supporter, allowing Howard's FP recharge ability to never take place. But with Cora's FP charge unable to produce an attack on anyone, she forfeited this round and let Howard take his turn.

"Stego, Spike Tail on the Nycto."

Nycto screeched in pain as the air hit actually hit good on him. Cora feared that Nycto would have to be a sacrifice for her as Raja's unstoppable attack ability dolled out the hurt. Though it was now Cora's turn and the FP Plus of Nycto proved useful. Raja did a Raja Bite on Stego, because it was the hardest hitting of the vivosaurs on Howard's team at the moment, and the Bite took out Stego in one hit. With the FP Plus though, it gave Yang the chance to attack for once.

"Yang, Spike Tail on the Goyle!" Cora yelled out, anticipation raising as the pressure to win surmounted. Even the fans were having a good time.

Even though Yang didn't take out the Goyle, Howard didn't follow through. Instead of taking out Cora's Nycto on his turn, he had Goyle attempt to take out Yang. So when it was Cora's turn again, one Raja Fang and out went Howard in the Caliosteo Cup. Cora's win was intriguing. The fans were cheering, they were rooting for her and as she walked out to congratulate her team, they roared louder than before.

So this is what it felt like to be a winner, Cora thought as she walked out of the Fossil Stadium, only to meet up with Pauleen again.

"That was pretty good for a kid."

"You better Diga Dig it sister."

"How do you know?" Pauleen's voice lowered as Cora shrugged.

"People don't give me a lot of credit, I may be twelve but I am not a dimwit dunce, you know. I'm electrically engineered and I plan on working for the FA one day as such. I have to go turn in these jewels to upgrade my sonar. I saw my cousin go in after me for her round battle. I know she's going to kick some tail."

"Just please, don't tell anyone."

"Pauleen, I'm full of secrets myself." She nodded at the older girl and walked off.

Alex watched her, still mad and still…he didn't know what he was feeling towards the girl. He had over heard her, heard her talk to the masked girl. Sometimes he wondered if it was possible she didn't understand, didn't know everything.

"Maybe she doesn't." He mumbled putting his own sunglasses on to prepare for his match after Pauleen's.


	6. Ch 5: The Lunch Time Special Interlude

**Hi All, just wanted to let you know, this is just an interlude of sorts. I'm in the middle of a massive writer's block and this just sort of popped up. I'm still going to work on Beyond the Cup, I'm just not so sure on what to do for Round 3, what sort of chapter I want to write about it. Yeah, so thanks for being patient with me. Enjoy.**

* * *

Lunch consisted of two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a Diet Mountain Dew and several pieces of string cheese that Cora got from her little fridge in the hotel room. Cora was sitting on a wall near one of the Fountains in Ribular Town, her tablet propped up on her knee. She had reprogrammed her tablet to sync with her paleopager, just in case she ever left one or the other behind at her hotel room. Cora was looking at the Yango info page from the FA site trying to see where Yango parts were located in the Park. She just really wanted to upgrade her vivosaur.

**_Why,_** Spike the Stego asked.

"You have all your parts, Spike, my brother gave me rare fossils for you after winning Round One in the Cup. Yango only has her Head and Body parts. After I'm done with my lunch I am going to upgrade my sonar so I can get more parts to the rest of the vivosaurs I have. I just want to know where I can find Yango parts. Yango's last trainer didn't do so well on treating her right, or even getting to clean her head part properly." Cora said still looking at her tablet.

"Who are you talking to?"

It was Todd. He stood in front of Cora, nervously rubbing his hands together. No, he was scared Cora concluded as she put her tablet down next to her on the wall.

"My vivosaurs, after all they aren't dumb dinosaurs, you know." Cora responded to Todd's question.

"So you can understand vivosaurs, like people?"

"They have personalities like people, yes. Yang is sort of quiet, my Tricera, or Cera, is the most talkative out of all my vivosaurs. Raja hardly speaks at all. Spike, the Stego that Andy gave me, he and Yang are dinosaur cousins so they want to be on the same team as each other." She shrugged while dusting her taped hands of sandwich crumbs.

"What do you want, Todd? I'm making plans before going to the next dig site."

"Don't tell anyone, Cora, or I swear…" Todd began, his mood suddenly changed on a dime.

"Don't swear, Todd, it's not nice."

Todd took a step towards her. "I mean it, Cora, don't you dare tell anyone or I will hurt you. I'll hurt you worse than that boyfriend of yours."

"Too late for that, don't you think?" She eyed him with scrutiny.

Cora stared at Todd long and hard. The stare lasted until Todd literally ran away. Now it was just Cora and her vivosaurs again.

"Well, time to go upgrade my sonar and then go look for more fossils." Cora exclaimed while standing up.

As she was throwing her trash away in a nearby trashcan Cora's tablet chirped at the same time that her paleopager beeped. The incoming FMS message read that she had a fossil rock delivery on the fossil lawn. This made Cora smile, since that was the reason she decided to eat out in the Town Square, waiting for Andy to send her another Winning Round Gift.

"Well hold the phone, Andy sent me another fossil gift." She smiled as she walked towards the Fossil Lawn path. "I wonder what he gave me this time."  
Going to the fossil lawn, Cora found four rocks that didn't recognize with her sonar. Sonars could tell which fossil rocks Fighters have cleaned before and stored them in a database. It helped Fighters know which fossil rocks they had already cleaned or not.

"Round One I get an all rare fossil Stego, now I have to find out what these four are." Cora said standing up. "Looks like I'm going on a trip to the Cleaning Room."

**_ What do you think it is? _**Yang asked.

"I have no clue, it's a mystery that I plan to solve." Cora responded.

Dina was watching Stella and the Ribular Staff escort Rockin' Billy off when Cora entered the Fighters Station. Rockin' Billy had tried to sabotage Fighters' digging in The Jungle Labyrinth dig site but Dina and Pauleen had stopped his cohorts after their monster machine blew up. Dina saw Cora pass the group, and watched her cousin approach.

"I knew he was up to no good." Cora said. "So, you won right?"

"It was a little difficult but yeah I did. Though Pauleen was able to win her battle with no difficulties, she was faster than me. I watched your battle. You did a great job out there. More people are noticing you."

Cora smiled at her kind words. "Thanks. I'm sorry if I didn't stick around for yours. When I saw Andy…"

"Don't apologize, Core. I understand. Did you get the message that Cranial Island is now open?"

"Yeah, I got the message when I was coming from the Fossil Lawn. Andy sent me a new set of four fossil rocks. I was going to clean them and my jewel rocks before I upgrade my tools. Then I'll head over."

"Cool, I'll be going over there soon, I have to upgrade my stuff too. Aren't Yangos found over there?" Dina asked.

"Yeah, in Mount Krakanak, the volcano, I'm hoping to upgrade Yang and make her stronger."

Suddenly Dina smiled, in an all knowing way. "Todd told me about your ability to understand vivosaurs."

"I've always been able to hear them. Why?"

"Can you hear mine?"

"Your vivosaurs, or your mind," Cora wondered out loud.

"My vivosaurs of course, you can read minds too?"

"No I can't read human minds, but I do know and understand vivosaurs. Andy could also, I understood his and he understood mine. And then I screwed up somehow…" She finished the statement with a wave of her hand.

"Do you think I will, understand my vivosaurs I mean?"

"Joe says it's possible that any Fighters can understand the vivosaurs, but sometimes they just can't."

"Joe? Joe Wildwest can understand vivosaurs?" Dina asked in mild shock.

"Yeah."

"I want to understand my vivosaurs." Dina said silently, looking around in case someone was listening in. "What does my Aeros say about me?"

"Um, I'd rather not."

"Why? If you can…"

"Dina, I'm not a translator. If you want to understand YOUR vivosaurs you have to listen from your heart and not your head. Excuse me, I have to clean the four fossil rocks Andy sent me." Cora turned to go towards the Cleaning Room.

"I'm heading to Cranial anyway. I'll upgrade my stuff over there. I'll see you around." Dina walked briskly to the doors of the Station before disappearing outside.

**_Do you think she'll listen to you?_** Yang asked as Cora entered the Cleaning Room.

"I don't know, I hope so because I think we just had a fight." Cora shook her coppery red hair.


	7. Ch 6: Round 3 Part 1

Spike and Yang were enjoying each other as Cora was fiddling with her tablet. She was looking for something, something that would help her in her battles. Spike was relatively new to her growing collection of vivosaurs. Nycto she had found in the Jungle Labyrinth but Spike came from her brother over on VivosaurIsland. Andy had given Cora rare fossil rocks containing Stego fossil pieces and without much difficulty Spike was now her top ranking vivosaur, on a team with his own dinosaur cousin Yang.

Cora's mind went back to her cousin, went back to everything that had been going on in the last two days. With Day 2 half way finished and with the anticipation of heading into that evening's third round tournaments, Cora was at a loss. Alex was mad at her for a reason she couldn't understand, Cora was growing more and more assertive because of it and not in a good way. She had no idea if she was going to win the Cup at all, and better yet she wasn't sure if she was interested in the Cup at all.

**_ Why do you say that? _**Yang asked having heard that thought run through Cora's head.

"I don't know, it just doesn't seem like the thing I want to do anymore. Not in total of what happened with Alex, it just feels like I have more interest in this whole Zongazonga thing, the history of the Islands and working on my tech gadgets. Just in my head I figured out a way to link my tablet to my paleopager and creating sunglass visors that work as sunglasses and as computers."

**_Is there any chance you'll finish the Cup at all? _**Spike asked.

She shrugged looking at the sky and the birds flying overhead. "I suppose I'll see how far I can go. People think I'm stupid, that I don't understand or don't notice things. I know what Pauleen is but there is so much out there that I don't know, that I don't understand and it is getting to me."

**_What are you looking for? _**Cera asked, knowing that Cora was looking for a specific vivosaur in the FA database of vivosaurs.

"I'm looking for a good support vivosaur, something that will boost my attack for the AZ and I think I found it."

No sooner had she said that the incoming helicopter heading to CranialIsland showed up, Cora put her tablet in her backpack she had prepared for when she got to CranialIsland. Cora got into the helicopter and watched the ground leave below her. Soon she would be looking for what she came to CaliosteoFossilPark in the first place.

**_Do you think you can find more of my parts here?_** Yang asked, once again breaking into Cora's thoughts.

"I don't see why not. Whoever owned you before surely didn't do a good job on cleaning your head. It's like he or she didn't care enough to clean you properly."

**_He didn't, he didn't care enough to clean my head part at all. He didn't want me in the first place._**

Cora glanced down at her dino medal case in her lap. "Who abandoned you, Yang? We've known each other for two years and you still haven't told me who it was that abandoned you."

Yang decided not to speak up after that.

"Fine, but sooner or later we're going to have to talk about this." Cora said, looking back out of the window as the ocean passed below them once more.

The heat was the first thing that Cora realized when she stepped off the helicopter on CranialIsland, in a place called CranialCity. Cora's auburn hair flared our as the helicopter took off once she had closed the door to the machine. Even Miami didn't have this kind of heat, she realized while uselessly trying to fan her face with her hand. Of course mostly made up of heat and desert, it was a far cry from the subtropical climate she was used to back in Florida and on RibularIsland.

"Hey There," a man's voice rang out after the drone of the helicopter propellers had disappeared up in the air. "I'm Terry the Staff leader of Cranial Island." The black haired man scanned Cora with his bright green eyes. "Are you Cora by any chance?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Stella told me about you and your Cousin. I actually met Dina shortly before you came here. And like her I want to tell you about the VMM upgrade."

There was a new option called The Bank, when looking at the vivosaurs dino medals in a Fighter's account. Next to Holder there was an option called Bank. By putting dino medals into the Bank it was like that vivosaur had never been found before so that a Fighter can have more than one of the same vivosaur on their team.

"I know it's a bit confusing…" Terry started to say.

"Actually, I understand it well enough. It's useful for me when I need two support vivosaurs of the same kind. I could make an entire team of one kind of vivosaur, like Yangos if I wanted." Cora smiled at the thought. "Speaking of, where is MountKrakanak located? I know Yango parts can be found at the top of the crater and that's one of the reasons why I am excited to be here."

"Just follow that center path right there." Terry pointed to the left of the helipad at the center path in CranialCity. "And you would be correct, Yango is found at the top of MountKrakanak. Just be careful, it is a volcano after all."

"Thank you, I'll remember that." Cora nodded before heading off to the new dig site.

In no time, Cora came to be looking at a giant volcano nestled to the south of CranialCity. The volcano itself was a bit foreboding in appearance because it appeared to be a horned skeleton head, with a plateau in front of the base. As Cora stepped along the path that led towards the center of the large plateau, Yang spoke up.

**_Cora, can I walk with you?_** Yang asked as Cora snapped a picture of the looming volcanic mountain in the distance for her brother.

"Why?" She asked putting her camera back into her hiking kit.

**_I just want to help you look for my parts. Also I want to go for a walk. I want to see this place for myself._**

"Okay, okay." Cora raised her hands in defeat. "It doesn't bother the rest of you, does it?" She asked the rest of her current vivosaur team.

**_I don't mind._** Spike said.

**_I don't like the heat._** Cera added. **_But I'll be useful in a battle._**

Nyke, the Nycto, chortled happily. **_I want a nap for now._**

**_That's Brazil for you._** Cera snickered lightly.

"Cera, I'll switch you out with the new Spino if you don't behave." Cora threatened the three horned vivosaur. "What about you, Raja, do you want a walk about as well?"

**_Yes._** Raja's booming voice, though as quiet as he was, always made Cora jump. He was a non-talker after all.

Bringing out Raja and Yang, Cora was amazed at how strange they appeared to be with each other, the three of them. Raja was a good twenty-nine feet long, Cora estimated he stood fourteen and a half feet tall at least. Yango was thirteen feet long, and Cora came up to her should with Yang's back spines just rising over her head. But it was how the three of them walked that seemed to make light of the situation.

There weren't a lot of fighters at the base of the volcano, but that's not where Cora was going. She needed the top of the volcano itself. That's where Yango parts were going to be found. But it was apparent that these three stood out, especially when Cora walked in front of Yang and Raja brought up the rear. Thought there weren't aware of it, the three were being watched.

**_You need to talk to her, Alex._** Plato told his Fighter. **_She deserves to know._**

"I will but I don't know how. She's too young to know how cruel life can be." Alex shook his head as he picked up his pickax.

Alex watched Cora as she near the rope bridge that led to the side of the volcano on the other side of a canyon. She, Yang and Raja stopped to see about crossing together. It was big enough but Cora didn't want to risk it.

**_Do you think it will hold out weight?_** Yang asked, glancing at Cora.

"I don't know. We better not risk it, so you two better get back into your medals." Cora turned to look at the two vivosaurs.

Instead of following her suggestion, Raja walked. He was forward and even though the bridge galloped under each step it held fast. Cora looked at Yang, but she was already stepping onto the bridge. Raja had walked across the bridge by the time Yang was halfway across but Cora stood on the opposite side waiting to see if the bridge would fall.

"Why should I try?" Cora asked before walking onto the bridge herself.

Raja walked first up the path, Yang and Cora following as they walked side by side. At this point all Cora was finding was jewel rocks, but it wasn't really what she was looking for. She kept looking at both the tablet and the fossil sonar that was in both of her hands. Cora also wasn't there just to look for more Yango parts, but rather a Machai. It was a tactical vivosaur that Cora knew would be of good use to her.

"Raja, wait, I got a ping in front of you!" Cora called up to the large Therapod vivosaur.

Raja waited patiently on Cora as she picked out the rock. But this time it was a fossil rock. A few paces further ahead were a few more different fossil rocks, different from the first that she had found. The two vivosars and their Fighter were on a natural rock bridge over look at water of lava. The heat alone was hot enough so that Cora was sweating by the time they made it to the top of MountKrakanak.

"Next time I'm not wearing black." Cora said wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.

Raja leaned over the edge of the crater, near an unfinished gondola platform that was up there. **_The bottom will be hotter than up here._**

Yang knocked a nice size bolder over the edge of the crater. **_You know what I don't understand Raja, is that you chose to go for a walk. Why?_**

**_It's of my choosing, Yang. I chose to walk with my Fighter, does there need to be an explanation for my actions?_** He responded leaning up to look at her.

"I'm going to dig up these few pings and then we can leave. Yang, Raja, please don't start fighting, especially this far up." Cora said getting her pickax ready to start swinging.

"What are you talking to?" A slightly accented voice questioned from the path that would lead down the side of the volcano.

Raja, Yang and Cora turned to look at the new person. Suddenly the tension rose, as did the heat around them it appeared to Cora. Yang made a noise that Cora never heard before, which made Cora walk up to her and place a hand on her large should. Just seeing FossilDig Rupert was enough to enrage Yang. Raja walked up behind Cora and the ever so mad Yang to see what was going on. There was also a purple looking machine that resembled a KL-33N unit, but it was the boy it was following that was the source of all Yang's misery.

"Huh," Rupert looked Yang over. "It appears to be my old Yang." He said approaching closer. "I thought I got rid of that useless thing."

"You did, but I found her." Cora gripped her tablet closer to her chest while pressing her hand deeper against Yang's shoulder. "So you are the one that abandoned her."

"Of course, because Yango is a pretty useless vivosaur for anyone, I don't know why my Aunt game me that thing. She was down right bad to begin with."

Rupert looked at Yang and laughed. He didn't stop laughing and that enraged Cora. Stepping up to the boy, Cora silenced him with a forceful slap to the cheek. The thirteen year old boy was mortified as he placed a hand on his stinging face, while looking like a fish out of water. His mouth was gaping open and shut as he tried to find the words to say.

"Why did you do that? To me of all people!" Rupert's voice rose steadily.

"The only useless thing here is you!" Cora yelled readying herself for another slap if she had to. "They are not useless, they have feelings like us, a mind like us. There are those of us who can actually communicate with them."

"You're crazy. Vivosaurs can't do any of that. All they are good at is fighting with." He looked Cora over with a critical eye. "You're a pitiful sight to be a fighter. Even your vivosaurs are pitiful."

"I'll prove it, give me your Mapo." Cora held her hand out. "He'll tell me the things only known between you and him."

"This is stupid. I don't need to be talk to a no nothing little girl like you."

"I'm only a year younger than you!"

"It does not matter. DI66-R come, we have better things to do."

**_No he doesn't._** A deep voice said coming from Rupert's medal case.

"Apparently you don't." Cora said causing the rich boy to stop walking. "But unlike you I have to fix the mess you created with Yang. You're such a bigwig and yet you stink at cleaning fossil rocks."

"Why clean something that I didn't want in the first place?" Rupert asked, smiling before going down the path that would lead to the bottom of the volcano.

"Oh, he's so aggravating." Cora threw down her pickax but there was a sound, which didn't sound like metal hitting stone. It sounded like she hit a fossil rock. "What the heck?"

Kneeling down, and using her gloved hands, Cora found something that didn't look natural. It was a strange stone, not a normal fossil rock but a six sided fossil rock, at least that's what was registering on her fossil sonar. Placing the strangely shaped fossil rock in her fossil rock case, Cora took her tablet and went into a desperate search for what this thing was that she had found.

**_What do you think it is?_** Yang asked, glancing over Cora's shoulder who was using a special pen to tap, slide and do things that the fire type Stegosaurus didn't understand.

"This fossil rock, well it's a special evolutionary rock that can evolve certain vivosaurs." Cora said, turning to look at the two vivosaurs with her. "There has been a list compiled of all the vivosaurs that can evolve into different forms. And from the looks of things, both of you and most of my vivosaur team can turn into different forms. It's called a miraculous fossil rock because only a few vivosaurs can turn into different vivosaurs."

**_Oh, oh, me, me please, I want an upgrade._** Yang stomped her feet in excitement. **_Find more of my pieces, clean them right and then I can prove that I am not a useless vivosaur._**

**_ You're far from useless, Yang._** Raja stated looking down at her. **_Far from it._**

Cora stood up and looked around. "Well, before we leave I'm going to figure out what these pings are then we can leave and prepare for the next round in a few hours."

**_Cora, I would like to return to my medal._** Raja turned to look at his Fighter. **_I enjoyed my walk up the volcano but I would like to rest now, until we have a battle._**

**_I would rather walk with you some_ more.** Yang said looking at her Fighter as well.

"All right, I don't see why not. Raja, return." Cora said, turning to the almost fifteen foot tall meat eater.

Yang shook her head as she watched Cora go off to look for more Yango parts.

_**We have the weirdest team in this competition.** _She thought as she leaned against a large rock to rest from the walk she had taken.


	8. Ch 7: Round 3 Part 2

**_ Do you hear something?_** Yang asked as Cora was leaving the top of the volcano.

Cora stopped and she listened for what Yang was hearing. She could just pick up the familiar sounds of a fossil battle going on but just as suddenly as she heard it, it stopped. Looking back at her Yango friend, Cora shrugged.

"There must have been a fossil battle on the volcano. Come on, let's go see what or who it was."

Down the two went. Side by side, Yang and Cora trudged, fighting gravity the entire way. The long trek up didn't feel bad but now Cora's legs were burning. Not from the heat, her legs had been straining with the climb up now it felt as if her legs were made of jelly. All Cora could hope for was that she didn't go head over heels down the volcano and end up falling to her death off the side or fried alive when falling into the volcano crater. Neither option Cora felt like accomplishing in her lifetime.

Halfway down the volcano, Cora stopped when seeing Dina talking to Todd and Rupert of all people. It hadn't occurred to her that Dina and Rupert were even on talking terms. Yang, however, stomped her large foot in agitation but Cora hushed her.

"I know, I know, but we can't let them see us. I don't want to deal with either Todd or Rupert right now." Cora said putting her hand on the backside of Yang's head, along her slender neck.

They both didn't have a long wait. Rupert, his Di66-R robot and Todd left back down the volcano while Dina started up. Dina stopped when seeing Cora and Yang approaching from the path that led further up the volcano.

"What's this about?" Dina made a hand motion towards the fire type vivosaur.

"She wanted to walk around with me. You should have been here earlier, Raja was walking with us." Cora stated, a smirk gracing her thin lips. "Oh hey, you won't believe what I found. It's called a miraculous fossil rock. It contains a special gold skull that will change the appearance of certain vivosaurs." She showed Dina the picture on her tablet.

"I have this one, the peanut shaped thing." Dina pointed at the other strange fossil rock on the screen. "It says it's a wondrous fossil rock."

Turning the tablet towards her, Cora looked at the description. "It says silver fossil pieces can be found in these wondrous fossil rocks. Silver skulls improves attack and accuracy, silver body improves defense, silver arm improves attack and silver legs improves speed and defense. The side effect is that the vivosaurs change colors, not physically into different vivosaur forms."

"And you didn't know about any of this. I thought you were hooked up into the FA database almost religiously."

"I haven't been to the FA database since my last time at summer camp. I was so busy trying to get Yango body parts for Yang that I haven't seen the FA upgrades until I got here. Now I have to go clean Yang's head part that Rupert mangled."

"Wait, what are you talking about." Dina grabbed Cora's arm to stop her from walking off. "Rupert was Yang's former Fighter?"

"Yeah, he abandoned her the day before I found her." Cora looked over at Yang. "Apparently, his aunt gave him her parts but he didn't want her. Cleaned her real badly and dumped her on that mountain. I should report him but I want to prove to him and everyone else that she isn't useless. I'm going to evolve her when I get back to CranialCity."

"I'm going to look for fossil rocks further up on the crater, then teleport back to Cranial."

"We'll walk thank you. I don't care for teleportation trips." Cora cringed at the thought. "Yang and I will see you there in a while."

"Okay." Dina nodded before heading in the direction Cora and Yang came from.

After a moment of watching Dina leave, Cora motioned for Yang to follow. It was still hot out but it got cooler as they made their way down, until they came to that natural stone bridge with the view of the lava falls. The air was hot but all discomfort ceased when Cora and Yang got to the foot of the volcano.

"Oh yeah, the bridge." Cora said seeing the large rope bridge.

**_Why, is that a problem to you?_** Yang asked.

"Not what Raja didn't listen to me in the first crossing. Just take it slow, okay. I don't want it to collapse under us."

**_Are you calling me fat?_**

The look Yang gave Cora was a mix of unreadable and a dinosaur style smirk. Whatever it was, Cora smiled at Yang before stepping onto the rope bridge after her vivosaur friend. Yang got over the bridge first, Cora crossed moments later. But something bothered Yang. She stopped in her tracking, looking at the ground with intense interest.

"What, what is it, Yang?" Cora asked her companion.

**_The ground is rumbling. I can feel it and hear it through the ground._** Yang said.

She picked up her right foot, put it down and then lifted her left. She could feel and hear something coming. Yang looked up, honked in fear and shoved Cora to the side, using her massive body to do so. Cora stumbled to the right, nearly getting crushed by Yang's girth as they both fell out of the way of a large boulder that rolled off the mountainous volcano. The boulder had continued rolling along the plateau until it got stuck. One of Yang's large spines practically covered Cora's entire body as both lay on the earth breathing heavily from the fear. The boulder lodged itself at the beginning of the dig site path between two rock structures Cora hadn't really noticed before.

**_Are you all right, Cora?_** Yang asked while rocking her body so she could get up on her feet.

"I am, I wish I could say the same about my tablet." Cora said reaching for her electronic device that had a crock running from one corner of the screen to the other. "Looks like I'll be using my sonar like everyone else."

**_Is that such a bad thing?_** Cera asked. **_I feel like I went through a washing machine. What happened?_**

"A boulder nearly crushed us. Thanks, Yang, for saving my tail." Cora said looking at her companion. "How did you know a rock was coming?"

**_I could feel it in the ground, feel and hear it coming off of the volcano._**

"We better tell Terry what's going on." Cora said while adjusting her top.

But there was a problem with that thought. The boulder that nearly crushed Cora and Yang blocked the path back to CranialCity. Cora was stuck and with no one in the volcano dig site, she had no help to get free. Yang placed her front feet up on the bould so that she could see over it.

"Yang, where's Cora? Is she all right?" Dina asked from the other side of the boulder. She sounded scared for once.

"I'm okay, Dina. I'm just stuck on this side. There's no one else over here besides my vivosaurs and I." Cora spoke up. "What can we do?"

"I'll have to break it." Dina said getting her pickax ready.

"I can help too."

"Not with your hands, Cora."

"Dina, I'm fine. My gloves prevent me from hurting myself. Now come on, we need to clear this path!"

Yet her words made no difference.


	9. Ch 8: Round 3 Part 3

Todd showed up soon after Dina had. Though the sound of a large crash just beyond the large boulder scared hm. It was Yang, standing sideways and using her spiked tail to smash the boulder. This of course prevented Cora from working at the removal of the large rock.

"Still hurting, Cora, do you still have your booboos?" Todd asked, raising his voice over the pings and smashes going on in front of him.

"Shut up, Todd." Dina stopped to look at her green clad friend. "We need to stop Don Boneyard's attempt at cancelling the Cup."

"Are you sure you're the only one to do it?" Todd asked.

**_He's and idiot. _**Yang grumbled before swinging her tail at the boulder again.

"Hey, Dimwit, Yang is doing her part on this side. Why don't you help with the effort?" Cora called out to him.

"You know, by the time any of you clear this boulder, we'll all be old." Rupert's voice said upon approaching.

"Rupert!" Todd and Dina exclaimed together.

"Oh no, not him." Cora groaned.

"Stand aside children," Ruper actually sounded like an authority figure. "Di66-R, destroy the boulder." He said standing aside for the purple robot to come in.

"Yes, sir or madam." The machine clanked and whirred.

Cora placed a hand on Yang's shoulder. She did so because her vivosaur friend was tiring. Yang's breathing was labored and her efforts only managed to get a small portion of the boulder chipped away.

"Rest, Yang. Let the robot do the work. We need to prepare for the battle with whoever did this." Cora smiled at her friend.

So they waited, waited for Di66-R to do the job. In twenty minutes half of the boulder was destroyed, Cora marveled at the piece of AI metal that was proving useful for once.

"I don't like robots, especially these robots." She mentioned from where she sat on a stone.

**_Why?_** Raja asked from his place on the team.

"Ever heard of iRobot? Robots rose up against humanity, and then humanity strikes back. I love electronics, I love dinosaurs and paleontology, I love computers, I just hate robotics and AI stuff."

Suddenly Di66-R began slowing. He was failing even to scratch the rock.

"Oh what now?" Rupert asked.

Cora stepped onto the middle of Yang's back so that she could look over the partially destroyed boulder. Cora saw that Di66-R was malfunctioning, sort of steaming because his electronics were frying out.

"Control ALT delete, system failure…" The robot said, sort of hanging limply in midair.

"Yang, break's over. Smash that rock." Cora said climbing down from Yang's back.

Stepping to the side of the rock, Yang gave a few practice swings as if she were playing baseball. But she wasn't playing, this was important for the Cup to continue. Swinging her spiked tail, with a loud thud, bits of rock began falling away. From the other side, Dina began to pick away at the boulder with her ax.

Turning to look at the girl, Di66-R spoke. "You wish to assist Di66-R?"

Dina nodded as her answer.

"So this is what it feels for humans to smile. Program reconfigured, complete, digging command, continue…"

Di66-R, Yang and Dina worked together. An odd sight indeed but in no time, from both sides, the boulder was destroyed. Todd cheered, Cora ran up and hugged her vivosaur partner and for once Rupert was impressed. He stood looking at the two as Cora ran her hand over Yang's head.

"It seems that maybe she isn't as useless as I thought she was." He said approaching Cora and Yang with Di66-R following him.

"That's a sorry excuse for an apology, don't you think?" Cora asked standing straighter when addressing the older boy.

"I wasn't." He said, his demeanor changing suddenly. "I'm going to find those boulder rolling hooligans."

"So am I." Cora added, tightening her gloves.

"No you're not." Dina stepped in. "You're too young, Cora. This is too dangerous for you. Go to the City and tell Terry what's going on."

"I'm not too young. He's only a year older than me!" Cora pointed to Rupert's retreated back. "I can do this."  
"What use would a baby be in this?" Todd asked, chiming in with a wicked grin.

"What did you say, Coward. You're too scared to even help." Cora turned to the other boy.

"This is not up for debate, Cora. Go back to the City, get ready for the next Round match. Go!"

Dina had grabbed Cora's elbow, pushing her towards the path that led to CranialCity. Cora braced herself against Dina and pulled her arm from her cousin's grasp. She shoved Dina back slightly.

"You're not my mother!" She yelled, glaring at Dina.

"Someone has to be since she's been dead for two years. All because she tried protecting you, she died. I made a promise that I would look after you because she couldn't."

There was no sound, nothing.

"Core, I'm sorry." Dina's voice softened.

"Shut up! Fine you win, dear Heroine! You can't do no wrong. Go play hero, make everything right. Protect me from something you know I can handle. Whe needs me anyway?" She turned and headed towards the path back to Cranial City.

**_I need you._** Yang said, following Cora.

Feverishly wiping away her tears, the twelve year old girl looked at Yang. "I meant human wise, Yang. Two years, I'm two years younger than them. Todd sucks at fossil fighting, I'm further along than he is yet I'm too young, too injured." Cora looked at her hands that were covered by gloves. "I can do this, I know I can."

**_I know you can too._** Yang nudged Cora's back with her snout.

**_All of us believe in you._** Cera added.

**_You have to believe in yourself first._** Raja added as well.

People were watching Cora and Yang as they came from the MountKrakanak path. Terry was the first to greet them at the top of the steps, near the helipad and he had a look of anxiety written over his handsome face.

"Woo wee, you look worn out there. How is everything at the site?" He asked.

"I'm not sure about Todd but Dina and Rupert went to stop whoever rolled the boulder down the volcano."

"Why didn't you join them?"

"Apparently I'm too young." Cora shrugged. "Dina told me to come tell you what was happening."

"Thank you for that." Terry put a hand on her shoulder. "It means a lot to me and to the rest of us."

"My Yango helped destroy the boulder. She was a great help. Now I need to go upgrade her before the Round matches that are coming up within the next hour." Cora looked at Yang and nodded.

In a flash of light, Yang returned to her medal form. Upgrading Yang would get Cora's mind off of everything, especial with another Round match coming. She headed for the Fighter Station to prepare for what was going to happen soon

* * *

**And now I have more writer's block. It took me this long to get this section done. Now I just need to finish up the last part of Round 3 and then I'll see what I can do on Round 4. Thanks for reading.**


	10. Ch 9: Round 3 Part 4

Cora shook her head. "Rupert really did not care for you, did he, Yang." She said looking at the status of Yang's body parts. "Let's see if I cannot fix that."

KL-33N was a sontant bather to her, always talking while she was focused on cleaning the parts. Yet Cora managed to tune him out as she meticulously cleaned each of Yang's parts. Cora spent a lot of time, and a few time plus add ons to clean that leg part. Once she had finished cleaning up Yang's pieces, Cora decided to take a break to prepare herself for what was to come.

_**What are you waiting for?**_ Cera asked, voicing everyone in the team.

"I'm preparing myself to clean this miraculous fossil rock, I am not good with cleaning brittle fossil rocks." She turned back to the cleaning counter. "Okay, I'm ready."

Cleaning this miraculous rock was a task but Cora managed to clean it without damaging it. KL-33N took the newly clean golden fossil over to the revival machine, Cora followed. She wasn't going to risk loosing a vivosaur like Yang to something foreign like a botched super revival.

"Choose which vivosaur you want to integrate this miraculous fossil with, DEET-DEET." KL-33N said, turning to look at Cora as she stood next to him.

"Yang."

"Are you sure? A super evolver will happen."

"I'm sure, yes I choose Yang to super revive." Cora nodded, trying not to show any axiety about the whole ordeal.

Through the flashing lights and electric spraks, Cora watched the holographic image of Yang transform before her eyes. What Yang had transformed into was something larger, way larger, that a normal Yango. It was red, with an odd blue coloring mostly along a fring of blunt spikes from it's head to it's tail. THere were ten spikes in total, excluding the four large spines coming out of the tail. It resembled a cross between a turtle and a Yango, but it lacked a shell. This Dydomio was made for defense and with good support effects for her own AZ, Cora was pleased.

**_Am I good now_**, Yang asked as Cora placed the back in her medal case on her hip.

"You were good to start with, Yang. Now you are called Dydomio. That is unless you wanted to keep Yang as your name." Cora said.

_**I want to keep my name, Dydomio sounds too male to me.**_

"All right, now it's time to clean the rest of these rocks. There is that Machai that I want to find, it will be useful in battles because of it's useful support stats." Cora stated as she returned to the cleaning counter.

There was the head, the body and the feet. Machai was a large cat, larger than a modern tiger. Compared to Cora, Machai was a horse to her. Although none of the fossil rocks were brittle, they were oddly shaped so with a few dings in there, the stats for Machai was good.

**_It's a pleasure to meet you, call me Mach._** The large feline said.

**_Where are you from,_** Yang asked as Cora went about cleaning the remainder of the rocks in her case.

**_I'm from America,_** the cat replied. **_So, am I going to be used in the main team?_**

_**Cora was very adamant about using you, so you'll be in good shape. **_Cera was more than ready for what was to come.

With all her jewel rocks cleaned, a few sapphires and double pearls, which meant another section of her tools was going to get upgraded soon, Cora headed outside. Her intentions were to get to the Fossil Guild where she can sell her jewels, but as she left the fighter station she sees Dina and Todd coming the Mt. Krakanak path. She was about to turn towards the Guild when she saw something flying towards the city center. It was a Mammoth TV from like from the opening ceremony. Othere were gathered around, expecting something to happen, what Cora didn't know, she had missed out on a lot of what was going on around there.

Joe's image appear on the screen. He was standing in his office in Wldwest Tower, which was located right there in the Fossil Station. Cora knew whatever happened before, when she wasn't around and during the bolder incident, it was bad.

"Howdy, fellow Caliosteo Cup Fighters. Now, ya'll may already know this but...It seems we're being hassled by a band'a thieves called the BareBones Brigade. They're tellin' us we gotta cancel the Caliosteo Cup and vamoose outta this park once and for all. Well horse feathers to that! This here Cup is my dream and I know it's shared by y'all. So if they want me to cancel it, they're gonna have to saddle up and make me! The Caliosteo Cup will never surrender! We'll beat them varmints, or my name ain't Joe Wildwest!"

People all around Cora were cheering, agreeing with everything Joe had said. Cora could even hear Todd from nearby acting all kinds of weird. As the Mammoth TV flew off she rolled her eyes before heading towards the Fossil Guild.

_**Who do you think will be your opponent in the next round of battles?**_ Yang asked as Cora entered the Guild.

"Like I care at the moment."

Cora had upgraded her Tools, opting to get a bigger fossil rock case and got the last fossil chip installed into her sonar. She even had enough to expand her sonar screen. This would make finding all the pieces for Cera, Aeros and even Raja back in Treasure Lake easier. When it came time to prepare for the next round she opted to switch out some of her team, trading out a several for some others. She kept Raja, Yang and Cera but she switched in Mach and with the Lambeo Tank that her brother gave her in the last winning round gifts she got.

_**Will we be strong enough?**_ Tank asked as e and Raja were in the reserve spots in the main team medal case.

_**I think so**_, Yang answered from her support placement with Mach, and Cera in the attack spot.

An FMS messafe sound from Cora's paleopager on her hip. "I'm going to have to fiz my tablet, I miss it already."

Cora's opponent was a girl, a teenager like Dina. Lily smiled at Cora in greeting as they met up in the common room. The girl was wearing a FossilDig Inc shirt that matched her black shorts with a matching pair of black boots to round out the outfit. She was also a blonde, like an ash blonde in coloring.

"Can't wait, huh?" Lily asked as the previous fighters in the match before them walked by, which Pauleen was a winner.

Glancing at the mask wearing, pink haired girl that had sauntered by, Cora spoke, "I just want to get this day over with. Tomorrow is another day." She responded.

Cora and Lily's match was announced for the audience. The doors slid open to reveal the Cranial Isle Stadium floor. Lily took her place at the opposite end of the field as Cora took her place on the field as well.

"All right, boys, let's go!" Lily yelled, throwing out her three chosen dino medals.

The three fire type vivosaurs made Cora worried. The Sungari was in the back support position, a Berto and a Machai were in the two attack spots. With her lone Cera in the front attack spot, Cora put Yang and Mach in the back support zones.

"Dang it, she has the speed advantage." Cora spoke, forming fists at her side. "Cera, when it's our turn, focus on the Sungari."

_**Got it**_, the lone water type replied.

"Alright, Sungari, do Sungari Beam on her Machai!" Lily called to the flying vivosaur.

Not too much damage was done. Mach shook off the attack, trying to stay in the game. Since Lily didn't have enough FP left for another attack it was now Cora's turn.

"Cera, Running Smash on Lily's Sungari!"

Flying types are usually weak, this one was no different. Cera managed to land a critical hit, taking out the Sungari instantly. That just left Berto and Machi in Lily's team. It also left Cora without enough FB to have a second attack.

"Okay, you can do it. Berto, Machai, Cambrian formation, Berto in the AZ." Lily commanded her two remaining vivosaurs.

_**Cera isn't a close combat fighter**_, Tank spoke up.

"She's a water type, so she won't be too terribly damaged if Berto attacks her. That puts the Machai in her range of attack, giving us the advantage." Cora replied, eyes focused on the match in front of her.

From his spot in the common room, Alex watched the younger girl. No emotion besides determination showed on her face. The teen knew she was good, that this was nothing to her. But she wasn't happy, she wasn't smiling, not like her first battle. He had seen her the first battle. She wasn't into the match on a whole, she was just going through the motions. Even if she was winning, she wasn't happy about something.

When are you going to talk to her? Plato asked, breaking into Alex's thoughts.

"After her match. Look, se just took out her opponent's Machai."

The crowd was thrilled. The little girl was owning the field, until the Berto took out her Machai leaving just Yang and Cera. Cera was at three-fourths full HP, no one tried taking on Yang the Dydomio. Now here was her chance to stun the audience even more.

"Cera, Yang, move to the SZ spots in the Jurassic formation. Leave the AZ empty." Cora called out onto the field.

"You don't have anything to attack Berto now." Lily yelled from her side of the field.

"I can attack from the SZ!" Cora yelled in return to her opponent. "Cera, do Tricera Combo on the Berto, finish this off!"

Finish it off she did. Cera charged the large meat eater, striking it twice. Berto stumbled back before glowing and turning back into its dino medal form. The entire stadium erupted in cheers from the audience. Cora just won her Round Three match, giving her a chance to win the Cup for sure now. The mere thought made the copper haired girl smile as she walked off the field once she had reclaimed her dino medals.

"That was a great match. Congratulations on winning." Lily said, once they were back in the common room.

"Thanks, you weren't half bad either. I have to go, so...bye." Cora said, not sure of what to say to the older kid.

"Yeah, I want to go get soemthing to eat. You should, too."

"I will, thanks." Cora smiled before heading towards the doors that would lead into the lobby.

Are you okay, Cera asked, knowing that her fighter wasn't acting as she had been.

"I don't know. Nothing feels right anymore."

"Cora!"

She twisted around so fast that Cora nearly fell over. It was Alex, he was there and there was no reason.

_**This can't be good**_, Yang said as the tall teen approached.

* * *

**I know, I haven't updated in a while. Honestly, I sort of lost interest in this story, stuck on where to go with the story. Hopefully I can come up with a better part next. I'm not sure if I like how the story is structured so far.**


	11. Ch 10: A Dinner to Remember

Ch. 10

The sun was setting, the orange sky was melding in with lavender and amber over Cranial City. The city was a light as darkness began to shroud it in night. In a small cafe eating dino cakes and drinking mint flavored milkshakes, Cora sat quietly while looking at the teen across from her. She nor Alex had spoken much since he had asked her to dinner with him. Even during the waiting for their treats they hadn't said a lot to each other. Alex Knight had asked her out to eat even if she wasn't really hungry. The sudden personality change in Alex confused her yet again.

"So, are you still getting gifts from your brother Andy?" Alex asked, looking at Cora as he was playing with the straw of his shake.

"Um yeah. After the first round he sent me all four parts to a Stego, all rare fossils. The after Round Two he sent me the parts for a Lambeo, which I named Tank because he is one. I have already upgraded my sonar with the fossil chip 1 so that I can find more pieces to my vivosaurs. I'll be going around looking for more parts of Cera, Raja, Aeros and my Nycto. Oh, I evolved Yang with this special gold fossil thing that I found."

_**I'm a Dydomio now**_, the vivosaur in question spoke up.

"Are you still Yang, though?" Alex questioned her.

_**Of course. No one can call me weak anymore**_. She prided herself.

"I'm sure they don't. I bet you're excited about the next set of rounds tomorrow."

"They've already opened Rainbow Canyon but night digging seems dangerous to me. Besides, I want to upgrade my vivosaurs. I'm heading back to Ribular tonight so I can get up early." Cora began to stand. "I should be leaving now, anyway."

"Cora, wait please." Alex's larger hand grasped at her wrist from across the table. "I wanted to apologize for my behavior, okay. That's why I brought you here. I want you to know that it wasn't your fault, it was mine. I took the idiot's way out."

"I don't understand, what did I do to make you so made with me?" Cora asked, looking at the older kid.

"Please sit and I'll explain everything to you, love." He had to use his European lingo to make her do what he asked.

_**Do you really want to hear what he has to say?**_ Cera asked, speaking up for once in this conversation.

"If she doesn't then she can just walk away." Alex stated, regarding Cora's team as her medal case was resting on the table to her right.

"Okay," Cora began as she sat back at the table. "Tell me why you got so mad with me, Alex. What did I do that got you so uptight."

"Growing up I was poor, dirt poor. My Dad was a drunk and my mum worked two jobs to support his drinking and me. I always had thrift store cloths, nothing new or name brand either. Donations, bloody great that was. As smart as I was, no matter how good I was, I was laughed at. The village I lived in was small, everyone knew what was going on but they didn't care. Dad is in prison for Driving while Under the Influence, you know DUI. He caused a crash, bloody near killed the soccer mom in the other van. Luckily her daughter was okay. That was just this year. I was more than happy to get out of there, to come here and be away from all that drama. I'm still poor, I still shop at discount and thrift stores because I can't afford things like those boots you're wearing."

"So am I, Alex. I'm a poor girl. My family, you wouldn't believe how disappointed I was. I went to FA Camp once, that was two years ago, but I could never go back again because it was too expensive to send me there. What's worse, I am a charity case too. My brother Alex works for Dr. Diggins, he's eighteen good for him, but I am only twelve. I live with Dina and her family. My parents died, too, in a drunk driving accident. Now I have to deal with not only being someone else's burden but I've got my own issues."

"Issues, like with Todd?"

"What do you call him, he's a bloody sod, yes. It's like he enjoys torturing me, making me feel as if I am worth little more than nothing. And Dina still is friends with him."

"Why, what started all of this? Why is he such a bloody git to you?"

"He did something to me, years ago. It was soon after I went to live with my cousin's family. Todd and Dina have been best friends for years. I just don't like talking about it. Not because he's threatened but because...it's personal. I'm not really ready to tell it yet."

"I'm here when you need to tell it."

After a brief pause, Cora spoke up, asking, "So you got mad at me for having my brother send you a piece to Plato. You didn't want a hand out, a charity as you called it."

"Aye, that's right."

"I did it to reward you for winning that round, Alex. I got Spike and Tank that way, for winning those two rounds. I thought you should be rewarded for winning, too."

"I suppose I was being a git about the whole thing." Alex ran his hand through his hair. "You didn't know and I shouldn't have hurt you like I did."

"Alex, it's okay, I'm okay." She showed him her hands. "Now that you told me I understand. Looking, I'm skipping out on Rainbow Canyon, I'll being spending my time on Ribular tomorrow until the Fourth Round. I need to upgrade my vivosaurs and I'm expecting another four fossil rocks from Andy. I really should be going and catching a helicopter."

"I would like to go with you, tomorrow. Let's spend it together. I need to do similar stuff with my vivosaur team. It would mean a lot to me, to earn your trust again. Truth is, I haven't had a friend like you before." He smiled as they stood up together.

Alex paid for their meal and then they headed out to the Cranial City helipad at the center of the city. Neither fighter really spoke because they were enjoying being able to spend some time together for once. Even their vivosaurs were quiet, for once.

"Meet me first thing tomorrow morning. That way we can get a crack at the day before the noon time round begins." Alex said once they were seated inside the helicopter heading toward Ribular Town.

"Okay, I think I like that idea. I'll set my alarm for six in the morning." Cora smiled over at him.

_**So, what do you think Andy will be sending you?**_ Yang asked.

"She still isn't happy about Tank." Cora told Alex, who was looking startled by the way the new Dydomio's question sounded.

"She's your first vivosaur, love. Can't blame her. She had two yeras with you, long than the rest of your vivosaurs. My team has changed some since we last spoke."

_**How different?**_ Cera asked.

_**I'm Gary the Sungari**_, a totally new voice spoke up._** I am a flying fire type with great support stats. My ancestors were found in China, in areas that were once lakes.**_

Think of Looney Tunes, those loopy characters that were always happy and yappy. Gary sounded exactly like that in Cora's opinion.

"Machai for me. He has great support stats and the Link ability. Yang is happy to be useful now as a Dydomio and I fixed up the carnage that Rupert put her through when he had cleaned her fossil parts."

"Wait, Rupert? That FossilDig Inc. bloke Yang always hated?"

"I know, it was a shock for me, too." Cora sighed lookg outside the helicopter window. "In short, Rupert abandoned Yang because to him she was useless, he didn't want her in the first place. That strange girl Pauleen even said Yang was weak, no in too many words of course."

_**Now I'm not**_, Yang sounded happy about this new appearance of hers. Maybe a little too much. _**I'm a great fighter. Aside from the negetive support effects of attack and accuracy for my team's attacking vivosaur, I'm really good.**_

"And you're my best friend, don't forget that." Cora added as the helicopter began to land in Ribular Town.

They parted ways once inside the hotel they were staying in. The first thing Cora did when she got to her room was call her brother Andy. He must have fallen asleep at his desk because he was sitting down as the image of him came through her paleopager. Also his black hair was sticking up in all different directions and was that a pencil coming out of his hair?

"Sorry, did I wake you, Andy?" Cora asked, setting her dino medal case on the table with the rest of her stuff before taking a seat in the lone chair in the room.

"No, not really." He yawned.

_**He's lying**_, Mach stated amusingly.

"Anyway, I'm calling to tell you that I won Round 3. Yang is a Dydomio now."

"That's cool, wait, what? You managed to evolve Yang?"

She explained to Andy the history of Yang's existence and the strange miraculous fossil rock that contained a gold skull in it. Cora left out the part of the Mt. Krakanak fiasco she had to deal with, with Todd, Dina and Rupert.

"Amazingly Yang evolved into a Dydomio but I have a feeling only certain vivosaurs can evolve but not all of them. I kind of want to figure out which ones."

"Anything else?"

"Alex wants to make up for being a jerk to me."

How did she go from talking about vivosaurs to talking about Alex Knight?

"I thought he would. Did you keep the Daspleto fossil rock I sent him?"

"Yeah, why?"

"It's a rare fossil. Even if he has that fossil part, he'll gain extra points to help his Daspleto level up."

"I know you sent me four rare Stego parts. Keep sending fossil rocks and I'm gonna loose track of them."

"Do you want me to send you more? If it's too overwhelming then I won't."

"No, Andy, don't. I can handle the stress. Spike and Tank are doing just fine, just so you know. We better get to bed. Can't wait for what you'll be sending me."

"You'll love it." Andy smiled as he stretched in his chair "Night, Core."

"Good night, Andy. You better sleep in your own bed." She smiled.

After hanging up her paleopager, Cora prepared for bed before slipping under her covers, turning off the light as she went. The last thing she saw was the stars shining in the sky through her open window.


End file.
